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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29764443">Ship of the Line: Apocryphal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacob_M_Bosch/pseuds/Jacob_M_Bosch'>Jacob_M_Bosch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ship of the Line: To Our Own [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stargate SG-1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Yet Another Halloween Fic (BtVS)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-04-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 13:47:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,911</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29764443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacob_M_Bosch/pseuds/Jacob_M_Bosch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Freed from their enslavement by the magically created Borg, the New Collective takes steps to ensure their survival. With Xander Harris as its de facto leader, the New Collective face their first major threat when Apophis and his son come to destroy Earth and all of humanity.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ship of the Line: To Our Own [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029417</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Borg King</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Alexander Harris no longer existed.</p><p>Though it would be more accurate to state his physical body ceased to exist. The Borg that possessed him ensured that Xander could never return as he was before. Once the Borg constructed a facility in Sunnydale capable of meeting its needs, Xander, then designated drone 1 of 1, was the first drone processed. Drone 1 of 1’s brain was removed then underwent a form of digitization as every neuron and synapse was transferred into the new Borg Collective. It was given the task of bringing order to chaos, and the new designation: Borg King.</p><p>Xander’s remaining organic parts were destroyed once the process was completed to decrease the chances of the process being undone.</p><p>Xander regained consciousness when Ethan’s spell was broken. He remembered everything that happened during Ethan’s spell. He knew all that the Collective knew, even though the Collective itself had fallen apart.</p><p>The drones that remained after the spell ended, those who had been fully assimilated and could not be returned to normal, had their individuality returned to them. Only a few remembered or understood why they no longer appeared human. Sensing all their fear and confusion, Xander transported them to the Borg Cube the second after Giles shattered the two-faced bust and installed them into regeneration alcoves. Then Xander took a page out of Captain Picard’s playbook and put the Borg into a looping regeneration cycle—he put them to sleep.</p><p>Xander could also sense partially assimilated people, those who hadn’t undergone full assimilation, who still possessed faint connections to the shattered Collective. Xander let them be. He hoped their connection to the Collective would fade over time.</p><p>The children Xander assimilated were secured in alcoves in the most heavily shielded area of the Borg cube. He connected their consciousness into a hastily constructed version of Unimatrix Zero. It was a temporary solution. Despite the pleasant reality Unimatrix Zero provided, the children were confused and frightened. Xander pledged to reserve a large portion of his now vast processing abilities toward reversing the children’s assimilation. No matter how long it took, or what the cost.</p><p>The Borg had assimilated 16,345 Sunnydale residents before the spell ended. Of those only 300 remained Borg, not including the thirty soldiers, technicians, and scientists taken from the Initiative. Xander had a decision to make. Even though he could process information a million time faster than before, he spent hours considering his next step. Ultimately, he came to the sure conclusion he had no right to make any possible decision on his own. Except one.</p><p>He woke up the other drones—individuals.</p><p>All at once it sounded, or rather, felt like hundreds of voices were shouting into hundreds of radios connected to the receiver in Xander’s mind. Xander could separate each individual voice, but to everyone else on the call it was nothing but unintelligible noise. Gently, Xander harnessed the mass of voices and strung each chaotic thread into a single, perfectly woven string. He didn’t command them, he only trafficked them, allowing each individual to choose to obey the stop signs and signal lights Xander put up for them to follow, or not. Soon, the voices became orderly and hundreds of voices spoke in turns and willing agreement.</p><p>Then Xander asked each individual all at once what they wanted to do. A few chose to return to sleep and live within Unimatrix Zero, unable or unwilling to live as Borg. Some chose to reform the Collective and find a way to someday return to their human lives. The rest embraced the Collective and sought to explore their new existence as Borg.</p><p>The debate lasted thirty seconds.</p><p>An eternity.</p><p> </p><p>Most decisions, it was decided, would be left up to Xander. The Individual Drones, as they now called themselves, though far more intelligent than normal humans, did not possess the raw intellect and processing power Xander had as a disembodied consciousness within the computer core of the Borg cube. Nor could any other Drone form a Collective as efficiently as Xander. He was also capable of operating every cube system alone, leaving the Borg free to exist as individuals within the hive mind, until circumstances required the Collective to unite as one.</p><p>So, once again, Xander was designated Borg King.</p><p>Xander’s first decision as so-call king was to connect all willing Individual Drones into a Collective so he could share the knowledge he had about what happened to them, and why. He also made the Collective aware of demons, witches, and vampires. The Stargates currently on Earth, as well as the Goa’uld, and the danger they posed to humanity. Most importantly, Xander showed them what he thought they could do to help.</p><p>As he hoped, every Individual Drone agreed to lend their aid and follow his lead.</p><p>Xander’s second decision was to bring Willow to the cube.</p><p>The instant Willow’s soul re-entered her Collective driven drone body, Xander made sure to disable the neural processor and neuro-transceiver in her brain. Willow’s assimilation had been unusual. Xander suspected the abnormality was due to Willow’s consciousness being missing when assimilation took place. Because her distinctiveness was not present to guide what specific role she would play within the Collective, Willow’s assimilation was guided instead by pure utility, which caused a higher percentage of her brain to be absorbed and assimilated.</p><p>If Xander hadn’t remotely disconnected the components inside Willow’s head, they would have overwhelmed her. Willow would have lost everything that made her Willow.</p><p>Xander refused to let such a thing happen.</p><p>After disengaging the components, Xander waited for Willow to contact him. Though he wanted nothing more than to talk to her and find out if she was okay, Xander dreaded the moment Willow asked for an invitation. He was so different now. They both were. </p><p>Xander knew Willow wouldn’t blame him for what happened, but he did blame himself. Because of his choices thousands of people had been traumatized. Hundreds more had their lives irreparably changed. Families would wonder where their loved ones disappeared to, and never know how or why. </p><p>Eight children might never go home to their parents. </p><p>All because of him.</p><p>Willow switched on her transceiver as expected. It was risky letting the cube remain on the planet’s surface for so long, but the Collective offered no objections. It helped Xander’s case that a good number of Sunnydale High students had been assimilated, and all of them were aware of the friendship Xander and Willow shared.</p><p>They were also aware of how smart Willow was even before she was assimilated. Many within the Collective believed she could be a valuable asset if she joined them. Though, Xander had other plans in mind for her that he didn’t share.</p><p>When Xander transported Willow to the cube, he placed her on one of the walkways. A walkway would be a familiar location if she remembered it from TNG or Voyager, and Xander hoped it helped put her at ease.</p><p>“Hello?” Willow called out.</p><p>Xander mentally slapped his forehead. Capable of a million calculations a nanosecond, and he still forgot to tie his consciousness into the cube’s main communication nodes.</p><p>“Xander?” </p><p>“Sorry,” Xander said.</p><p>His voice through the communication nodes boomed, and he didn’t sound like himself. He didn’t sound like a Borg either. His tone and pitch were generic; artificial. An approximation of a male human’s voice.</p><p>“Is that really you, Xander?” Willow asked, posing her question to the open air.</p><p>“It is. Good to see you, Will.”</p><p>“See me? Where are you?”</p><p>“Don’t laugh, okay? But I’m everywhere. What’s left of me is inside the cube.”</p><p>“Xander, you’re not making sense!” Willow said. “What happened to you?”</p><p>Xander paused for two nanoseconds before he remembered Willow had never seen First Contact. She didn’t know what a Borg Queen was.</p><p>“I can explain, but first I need to know something,” Xander said.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Are you alright?”</p><p>Willow laughed as tears formed in her silvery-black eyes.</p><p>“I’m fine! You’re the one who’s talking like he’s a ghost! Talk to me, Xander! Why haven’t you come back to m—us?”</p><p>“Willow, I… I can never come back.”</p><p>“What? Why?”</p><p>Xander could hear the fear in Willow’s voice and he wanted to make it go away. To make her laugh at a silly joke, or one of his goofy faces. He knew he couldn’t do that for her anymore, not the way he was.</p><p>“I can explain everything. I need your permission to reconnect you to the Collective for three seconds.”</p><p>“Do it,” Willow said.</p><p>Though it shouldn’t have, Willow’s quick acceptance surprised Xander.</p><p>“Aren’t you afraid?”</p><p>“If you say it’s okay, it’s okay.”</p><p>Xander wished he could hug Willow, kiss her forehead, and thank her. Her faith made him feel human again.</p><p>The process was instantaneous. Xander made the connection one way; withholding Willow’s most inner thoughts and experiences unless she volunteered them. At the same time, he gave her full access to the extensive knowledge of the Collective. Its capabilities, its goals, but most importantly Xander showed Willow how he wanted to give her a shot at living a relatively normal life.</p><p>“Can you really do that?” Willow asked once she was separated from the Collective’s mental space.</p><p>“I can.”</p><p>“Can you do it for the other Borg in the Collective?”</p><p>“Eventually.” Xander kept his answer brief and hoped Willow wouldn’t notice.</p><p>“Xander! The whole truth, mister!”</p><p>“Well, it’s like this… Cloning new bodies would be child’s play, however, to perfectly transfer thought patterns and memories into those bodies requires many more calculations per nanosecond than our Collective is currently capable of performing. We would need to—”</p><p>“Assimilate more people into the Borg to increase your processing power,” Willow said.</p><p>“Yes. One million assimilated individuals would be necessary to attain the computational might needed to efficiently and effectively move consciousness from one form into another without the risk of simply creating a clone with the thoughts and memories of the original being.”</p><p>“Maybe… Maybe you should,” Willow said.</p><p>“Should, what?”</p><p>“Assimilate the people you need.”</p><p>“Willow.”</p><p>“I don’t mean just anybody! Just, you know, bad people!”</p><p>“This new Collective is not like the one from Star Trek. You saw that when you were a part of it, didn’t you? Our Collective values freedom and cooperation, not subjugation.”</p><p>“I want you back!” Willow said. She began to cry, but her voice was strong, and her eyes gleamed with conviction. “You don’t deserve this, none of you do! So, do what you have to, to make things right again!”</p><p>“Every effort will be made to do that, I promise, but we—I—will not allow this Collective to become the ruthless monsters we once were.”</p><p>“I accept the Collective’s offer,” Willow said.</p><p>“Did I miss a sentence, or two?”</p><p>“I was offered a place within the Collective. I accept.”</p><p>“Willow, no. I can remove your Borg components. I can fashion new limbs and organs for you. You can live as a human.”</p><p>“But my brain will always be part Borg.”</p><p>“Yes, but you will appear normal. No one will ever know.”</p><p>Willow shook her head. “If you have to live like… like… then I will, too.”</p><p>Looking at Willow and hearing the determination in her voice made Xander realize he may have lost more of his humanity than he suspected. It had not occurred to him Willow would discard her own humanity to remain at his side. Absolute foolishness on his part. When Xander remembered what he was like as a flesh and blood being, he knew with absolute certainty that person would make the same choice with just as little hesitation.</p><p>“I understand. I ask that you allow me to proceed with my plans to give you a more human appearance before you make any final decisions.”</p><p>“You won’t cut me off from the Collective?”</p><p>“I will not, not unless you want me too.”</p><p>“Then… Okay.”</p><p>If Xander could have sighed with relief, he would have.</p><p>“I have one other thing to ask of you,” Xander said. “The Collective is going to need a representative…”</p><p> </p><p>Willow followed two drones as they led her through the cube’s machinery laden corridors. They passed many alcoves, and none of them were occupied. Willow knew now there weren’t enough Borg to fill even a fraction of ten thousand alcoves in the cube.</p><p>The Borg escorting her were fully armored. Their skulls, the parts not covered in implants, were extremely pale and completely bald. One was taller than the other and taller than Willow herself. She was unable to tell if the taller drone used to be a man or a woman, as their plating concealed any obvious gendered features. The shorter drone Willow was certain used to be a man because she recognized him despite all the implants and plating.</p><p>“Jonathon? Jonathon Levinson?”</p><p>“Hello, Willow,” he greeted her. “Please call me Individual Drone One of One.”</p><p>“I… Okay.”</p><p>Willow understood from her time in the Collective there were many who embraced their assimilation when it became obvious they could not be restored, while others simply preferred being Borg to who the used to be. Willow didn’t know Jonathon as well she used to back in middle school, be she suspected he was one of the latter.</p><p>Both Borg walked quickly and with fluid strides. Willow recalled the Borgs’ gait being much slower, but these two moved like normal people. In fact, Willow had to increase her own pace just to keep up with them.</p><p>She was brought to a corridor with a dead end. The corridor’s walls moved like pin screens only these were made of blocks of various sizes. Isometric shapes, mostly cubical and cylindrical, undulated and shifted in places before going flat and still. As they approached the end of the corridor, One of One walked to the wall on the right and made a holographic display of Borg symbols appear with a wave of his hand. He entered a button sequence then the dead end wall sank into floor, revealing a large chamber.</p><p>The room was taller than it was wide. Tubes and wires dangled from the high ceiling, at the center of the ceiling was a circular hatch of some kind that opened into impenetrable darkness. Some of the tubes and wires even looped up into the portal. Not even Willow’s enhanced vision could penetrate it. Directly below the hatch was an opaque black pod with an oblong shape eight feet in length, and four feet wide. </p><p>The drones led Willow inside, and when they came to a stop Willow followed suit.</p><p>“This is a repurposed conversion pod. I fashioned it especially for you,” Xander's disembodied voice said.</p><p>Willow remembered the pod from the hurricane of information she received from the Collective, but the details eluded her now that she was no longer connected to the hive mind.</p><p>“What does it do?”</p><p>“Originally the pods completed assimilation of new drones. Adding specialized Borg components, while removing useless, or redundant organic tissue, and DNA. It also floods the new drone’s body with specialized nanoprobes designed to suppress its immune response while acting as an immune system in its stead.”</p><p>“You will be inside the reversion pod for nine days and seventeen hours,” Individual Drone One of One informed Willow.</p><p>One of One swiped his armor-plated hand over the pod and the top poured open as though it was made of black liquid.</p><p>Willow climbed inside and laid down.</p><p>“I promise you’ll be safe, Willow,” Xander said, his highly synthesized voice not quite matching the comforting tone his words tried to inspire.</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>The pod reformed and then a warm, clear liquid began to fill the inside until Willow was completely submerged. As Willow breathed in the fluid, she felt her thoughts fade. She realized the fluid had anesthetic properties. She didn’t fight it, allowing the fluid to quickly put her under.</p><p>When she opened her eyes next, Willow saw she was standing atop a high mountain overlooking a paradise vista that extended for as far as her eyes could see. Her body was completely human, and she was wearing different clothes, an outfit she recalled wearing before. A black and pink cat shirt, blue jeans, and leather dress shoes. </p><p>Children laughed as they flew through the crystal blue sky, and in the valley below Willow saw a small village made up of modest homes, and groups of men and women peacefully interacting. To her right was a white sand shoreline that touched a calm, perfect blue ocean. Individuals, and couples holding hands, walked along the shore without a care in the world.</p><p>“Hey! A new lady is here!”</p><p>Willow looked up as several of the flying children swooped down and hovered in front of her. Willow recognized the children; they were the kids Xander had been chaperoning on Halloween. The child who announced Willow’s arrival was especially familiar.</p><p>“Hi, new lady!” Sara Tyson greeted with a wide smile, and her wild curls swayed in the wind sweeping over the mountain.</p><p>Willow smiled and learned she could cry in this artificial world.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Xander-y</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Collective make efforts to improve their situation and prepare for the upcoming conflict with the Goa'uld. Willow emerges.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The cube moved beyond Earth’s atmosphere and headed towards the asteroid belt at impulse speed. The cube’s scanners discovered an abundance of raw materials the Collective could make use of among many asteroids floating in the space between Mars and Jupiter. The object that most attracted the attention of the Collective was an asteroid 140 miles wide composed of eighty percent nickel, fourteen percent iron, four percent gold, and two percent silver. From its immense size, and the somewhat unreliable memories from the drone 1 of 1, the Collective theorized the asteroid was the leftover core of a protoplanet.</p><p>When the cube reached the asteroid, mining began immediately. With the looming threat of the Goa’uld, the Collective decided to increase the size of their cube and add three additional layers of ablative armor. With their power reserves well below that of a standard Borg cube, the Collective could not maintain their EM subspace shielding, as well as weapons volley, and other cube operations, during a prolonged battle. Not without using matter/antimatter streams, which was currently impossible without the stabilizing effects of dilithium. Nor did they possess the necessary nascent matter to repair the cube should it sustain severe damage.</p><p>Harvesting and processing the asteroid took sixteen hours, three times longer than it would take a “normal” Borg cube to complete the same tasks. Seventy minutes after taking what they needed from the asteroid, the cube’s mass increased a hundred times. This process continued until the cube was the same size as the Borg cube first encountered by the crew of the Enterprise D. Two thirds of the asteroid remained after the cube’s modifications, more than enough to build new Borg vessels.</p><p>Now all they needed were the means to power their improved cube, and their yet to be built ships.</p><p>The Individual Drones who had been scientists and technicians at the Initiative suggested many possible types of energy sources. Using his vast computational abilities, Xander was able to devise the three most viable means of harnessing energy from the Sol System. The first, and easiest, meant heading straight to the solar system’s only star.</p><p>Utilizing a bastardized form of metaphasic shielding in conjunction with a newly fabricated ram scoop, the cube was able to harvest the hydrogen needed from the sun's corona to power the two hundred fusion reactors spread throughout the cube.</p><p>Of course, the Collective did not intend to remain dependent on their fusion reactors forever. Their ultimate goal was to harness Particle 010 for their future energy needs. But for now, the Collective lacked the resources, technical know-how, and a safe region of space to develop their understanding of the unique and dangerous particle.</p><p>Now flush with all the energy they needed to maintain the cube long term, the Collective returned to the asteroid belt. There they intended to gather more resources, including fusion materials and other carbon-rich materials. Once they mined all the material they needed from the Belt, the construction of the Unicomplex could begin. The first of many such complexes Xander intended to seed throughout the system.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“The Borg never used small attack vessels,” Individual Borg Three of Six remarked as she studied the schematics to Xander’s new ships.</p><p>Three of Six and Xander held their discussion deep within the Collective’s hive mind, allowing their debate to occur at nanosecond speeds. Three of Six of Unimatrix Four, possessed the keenest intellect when it came to engineering. Before she was assimilated, she’d overseen the construction of the Initiative's base, and worked on the retrofit at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.</p><p>“And the Borg lost to vastly inferior species because they couldn’t think outside the box,” Xander said. “Imagine Starfleet having to deal with a swarm of my darts and a tactical Borg cube?”</p><p>“I see your point. Do you intend to have Individuals operate these Hexa-darts of yours?”</p><p>“No. They can be flown by Individual Drones, but I can remotely operate a phalanx of them by myself,” Xander boasted.</p><p>“During combat?”</p><p>“And without taking a significant hit to my overall computational speed and efficiency.”</p><p>Three of Six paused for three fifths of a nanosecond before she said, “How many Borg craft are you able to control before it affects your computational speeds?”</p><p>“The Prime Cube, all four Nets, and as I said a phalanx of darts.”</p><p>“But not the Octa-cad?”</p><p>“Too many redundancies are built into its operating systems,” Xander replied, mentally shaking his head. “I can control it and maybe a dart, but that’s it. Anything more, and my efficiency goes way down.”</p><p>“Speaking of the Octa-cad: why did you dedicate so many of our limited resources on a craft focused solely on search and rescue? Considering the threat the Goa'uld pose, wouldn’t it have been better to use those resources to construct more tactical cubes?”</p><p>“We have enough Nets,” Xander said, “and enough firepower to annihilate an entire solar system ten times over. What we don’t have, what the original Borg never had, are fall back options.”</p><p>“They rarely need them,” Three of Six mused.</p><p>“Except when they did. Species 8472, the route at Wolf 359, not to mention everything that happen in First Contact.”</p><p>Xander sensed Three of Six grinning when she said, “Worried the same thing that happened to the Borg Queen will happen to you?”</p><p>“It’s crossed my mind. But more importantly, I want a way to transport our entire contingent to safety if the Prime Cube and Nets are ever severely disabled or destroyed.”</p><p>“Hold on. Have you discovered a way to transfer your consciousness to the other Borg ships?”</p><p>“To some degree. I would be diminished significantly if I moved to one of the Nets, and rendered senseless if I transferred to a dart. Only the Octa-cad is capable of handling my full essence.”</p><p>“Can I assume Individual Drones can’t use a similar method to transfer their consciousness?”</p><p>“Sorry, no. It requires making 1000 quantum connections within the span of one microsecond to make the jump safely. No single drone is capable of that level of computation.”</p><p>“Disappointing.”</p><p>Xander wondered how ‘disappointed’ Three of Six truly was. She had never shown the slightest interest in returning to her human form. She’d been one of the first Drones to fully grasp and harness her connection to the Collective. The fascination and sheer joy she showed when exploring the near endless plains and valleys that made up even their tiny Collective was inspirational. Or frightening, depending on your point of view.</p><p>“Other than the darts being unconventional, do you see any obvious flaws in their design?”</p><p>“Not really,” Three of Six said. “I still have my doubts about installing them with cloaking devices that don’t allow them to attack while cloaked.”</p><p>“I wanted to keep the darts small,” Xander said. “Adding a more powerful cloaking device would have doubled their size. Besides, their stealth shielding makes up for the lack of cloaking during combat.”</p><p>“Unless one were to simply look out a window and eyeball it,” Three of Six said.</p><p>“Funny.”</p><p>“I am amusing, aren’t I? Okay, I see no glaring flaws in these designs. I will have them put into production… Now. Anything else?”</p><p>“Yes. Willow’s time in the reversion pod will end in sixty-one minutes, and I want to reenter Earth’s orbit to return her.”</p><p>Xander was now speaking to the entire Collective.</p><p>“I take it the process was a success?”</p><p>“More or less.”</p><p>“Ugh. Don’t equivocate. It’s annoying,” Three of Six groused.</p><p>“Ah. Sorry. The reversion pod was able to rebuild her organics but restructured them to be genetically flawless. Even enhanced in many regards.”</p><p>“Elaborate.”</p><p>“Basically, her organics have been genetically enhanced to compensate for her increased mental acuity and perception.”</p><p>“I see. How do you think she’ll react to the news she has hypercognition?”</p><p>“I honestly don’t know,” Xander replied. “I just hope it won’t interfere with her living a normal life.”</p><p>“I’m sorry? Was she living a normal life before?”</p><p>“Why, aren’t you full of humor today,” Xander said tartly.</p><p>“Just calling ‘em like I sees ‘em, my King.”</p><p>“Don’t start.”</p><p>“Sorry. The Collective is willing to accept the risk,” the Collective spoke through Three of Six. “Well, if that’s all, I want to join the Unimatrix constructing your darts. I think I can add a few improvements to perfection.”</p><p>Before Xander could comment on her maybe joke, Three of Six added her consciousness to Unimatrix Nine and was gone.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Once in orbit around Earth, Xander scrambled every nearby spy satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the Northern Hemisphere. He almost couldn’t believe how many nations were creeping on the U.S. Even Canada was playing voyeur and peeping into America’s bedroom window.</p><p>He remotely plugged into a communications satellite and quickly located the numbers of Buffy, Giles, and even Cordelia.</p><p>Cordelia. Xander had many regrets, but not being there in the library when Cordelia let her Geek flag fly easily made his top ten list. The sheer tonnage of mockery he could have dropped on her would have made all of seventh grade worth it.</p><p>It was much harder to hold on to his animosity towards Cordelia now after her brief assimilation into the Collective. Xander learned a lot about her in that time, Buffy as well. He’d walled off the more intimate details out respect for their privacy once the New Collective was in control, though Xander and the Collective’s overall sense of Cordelia remained positive. Plus, she’d been helpful, even decent to Willow after the gang learned about Willow’s assimilation. That wasn’t something Xander was willing to overlook because of some childish grudge.</p><p><i>Shallow Queen isn’t so shallow after all</i>, Xander had come to realize.</p><p>From scanning Sunnydale, Xander knew Buffy was currently patrolling Restfield Cemetery. Three vampires were on the opposite end of the cemetery, seemingly unaware a hundred pounds of whup-ass was just a few meters away. Xander nearly vaporized them, but refrained, knowing while the Prime Cube possessed stealth capabilities, its weapons did not. After their debut, the Borg were now a known quantity to other powerful forces on the planet. And not all those forces were something the New Collective could readily handle.</p><p>Xander watched closely as Buffy stalked her prey. He didn’t realize how much he missed seeing her until he tried to focus scanners to hear Buffy’s patented quips; but there were limits to even Borg technology. Xander missed the sound of Buffy’s voice. Of course, he could relive all the times he ever heard her talk, he could even recreate a facsimile of her and her voice if he wanted, but it wasn’t the same without the spontaneity of the not knowing what she might say to him.</p><p>Buffy was on the vampires in a flash. She staked one before the other two knew what was happening. One of the remaining vampires leaped at Buffy and was rewarded with a punch to the face then a stake to the heart. The last vamp wasn’t much smarter than his friend. He took a swing at Buffy that she dodged before kicking him in the stomach, followed by a punch to the face which stunned the vampire long enough for Buffy to jam her stake into his heart.</p><p>Afterwards Buffy continued to patrol Wakefield, not knowing she already cleared all the cemetery’s undead loiters.</p><p>Xander scanned Sunnydale High next, the library specifically, and located a single individual within. From bio-readings the person matched Giles physical description, so Xander sent a call to the phone in Giles’s office. Five seconds later, Giles picked up.</p><p>“Hey, Giles. Just calling to let you know Willow is doing fine, and will be joining you shortly,” Xander said.</p><p>“Who is this? Where is Willow?” Giles exclaimed into the phone.</p><p>“With us—me—Xander.”</p><p>“I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but it is in very poor taste,” Giles said. “Now, who is this?”</p><p>It was because of a quark of the human physiology Xander was unable to replicate his human body’s original voice because he’d only heard it through his skull and tissue. Even trying to recreate it from the memories of those who’d heard him speak didn’t help, because they all heard him differently from each other. And Xander had no access to a recording of his original voice either.</p><p>At least he finally managed to make himself not sound like the entire Collective when he spoke.</p><p>“It’s me, Mix Master Tweed.”</p><p>“What did you…? Xander?”</p><p>“Not quite in the flesh.”</p><p>Giles fell silent, and Xander waited patiently for the man to gather himself.</p><p>“How do I know this is truly Xander Harris and not the ungodly machine Collective that took him?”</p><p>“Hey, that’d make a great band name!”</p><p>“Xander, will you please…” Giles sighed heavily before he went on to say, “I need some proof you are who you claim to be.”</p><p>“No can do, Giles, you’re going to have to take my word for now.”</p><p>“Unacceptable.”</p><p>“Understandable, but I’m not exactly in any state to provide you with the evidence you want,” Xander said. “When Willow returns, she can explain everything. Just wait forty-nine minutes and I will transport her to the library.”</p><p>“If this is some type of ruse…” Giles warned.</p><p>“It’s not.”</p><p>“Forty-nine minutes, you said?”</p><p>“Forty-eight now,” Xander said.</p><p>“I will retrieve Buffy and bring her back here. She will want to speak with you.”</p><p>“Just leave the phone off the hook. You’re not being charged long distance rates, I promise you.”</p><p> </p><p>Twenty minutes later Buffy snatched up the phone in Giles’s office.</p><p>“If you hurt her, I don’t care who you say you are, and I don’t care where you are, I will hunt. You. Down!”</p><p>“Oh, my,” Xander said as the pleasure of hearing Buffy’s voice overwhelmed him. “Buffy: are you gonna give me a spanking?”</p><p>“What tha—?” Buffy must have lowered the phone way from her mouth because what she said next sounded distant and a bit muffled. “Giles. Who else but Xander could be this… Xander-y.”</p><p>Xander didn’t know if that was a compliment or not.</p><p>“Is Willow okay?”</p><p>“I don’t want to speak for her,” Xander said, “but I think so.”</p><p>“Why did you just up and snatch her up like that! Do you have any idea how crazy worried we’ve all been? About both of you?”</p><p>“My bad.”</p><p>“Your ‘bad.’ Really, Xander?”</p><p>“Yeah, I really let the jerky part of my brain out of the barn there. Sorry.”</p><p>“Well… Okay.”</p><p>A pensive silence fell, and Xander could almost picture Buffy biting her lower lip.</p><p>“Xander—”</p><p>“I’m doing better than I have any right to be, Buff.”</p><p>“Xander. It’s not your fault—”</p><p>“When Willow gets there,” Xander interrupted, “she’s going to explain in more detail what’s going on. If you want to contact me just ask her.”</p><p>“Wait! It sounds like you’re about to hang up! Why can’t we talk more?”</p><p>“It’s dangerous being in orbit too long. It’s even dangerous talking to you guys like this.”</p><p>Even the Collective couldn’t use wireless encryption on something as low tech as a landline, and there was no telling who might be listening in since almost every phone in Sunnydale was being monitored. Not just by the standard alphabet soup of U.S. intelligence agencies, but also the NID as well. Xander could have shut down their surveillance, but it would have attracted even more bad attention, and alert the agencies to the fact Borg could disrupt their surveillance apparatus.</p><p>“Willow can contact me securely if you need to reach me.” Xander paused for what would only seem like three seconds to Buffy, but to Xander it was long enough to transcribe the complete works of Shakespeare, the New Testament, the Quran, and the Torah three times.</p><p>“She’s going to need you guys, okay? She’s going to be fine physically, but what I—the Borg did to her couldn’t be completely reversed, and I did the best I could to give her a chance at a normal life, but what she’s about to go through…I need you to be there for her, because I can’t.”</p><p>“We will,” Buffy said, and Xander could tell she was crying now. “We can help you, if you let us.”</p><p>“I’m fine, Buff, don’t worry about this cretin. Okay?”</p><p>“Forget it. Not a chance.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“How you doing?” Xander’s synthesized voice greeted Willow when she opened her eyes.</p><p>Before she could answer, Willow already sensed something had changed about her. She looked at her bare arms and saw they were no longer covered in Borg armor or components. Though she also noticed her arms were a lot more… toned than before. She opened and closed her mouth and didn’t feel the cranial implant restricting her jaw.</p><p>“It… It worked,” Willow whispered to herself.</p><p>“About that…” Xander began.</p><p>“What’s wrong?”</p><p>“There’s nothing wrong, really,” Xander said.</p><p>Willow could tell Xander was holding something important back.</p><p>“Out with it, Xander!”</p><p>“You have a form of hypercognition. I don’t know how it will express itself, but I suspect it will manifest physically.”</p><p>“Oh. Oh, that’s—”</p><p>“Coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?”</p><p>“Yeah. How much of me is still Borg?”</p><p>“Sixty percent of your brain, 7 trillion Borg microfilaments are spread throughout your nervous system, and two hundred and seventeen thousand nanoprobes are in your bloodstream.”</p><p>“Can I still connect to the Collective? You know, so we can talk whenever we want?”</p><p>“You can. And you have full control over your implants. Only you can turn them on or off now.”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>“There’s something else.”</p><p>“Go on. I don’t think anything can throw me for a loop right now,” Willow said.</p><p>“Okay then: your body has been genetically modified.”</p><p>“What!” Willow exclaimed.</p><p>“Thought you said—?”</p><p>“Xander!”</p><p>“Okay, okay!”</p><p>“What happened?”</p><p>“Well, since your brain is more synthetic than organic, you’re going to find it works faster and more efficiently than a normal human body can keep up with, so the pod changed your physical makeup to compensate. Your vision is enhanced, and your reflexes are faster. Your hand eye coordination can probably match Buffy’s. But most importantly, you will perceive the world around you differently.”</p><p>“Like how?”</p><p>“I can’t be sure. I only know Borg see reality differently than non-Borg. I can see time, for instance,” Xander said. “Take the energy radiating from the Hellmouth; it’s a tear in the fabric of time and space that I believe leads to multiple planes of existence.”</p><p>“You can really see time?”</p><p>“I can see the past more clearly than the future, but yeah, I can.”</p><p>Willow tried to wrap her head around what Xander told her. What else was he able to perceive and understand that she couldn’t? Willow felt a strange kind of sadness, that wasn’t quite jealousy, but close. She realized Xander could explore worlds of new discoveries and have experiences she’d always dreamed of having.</p><p>“Are you okay, Wills?”</p><p>“I’m fine,” she replied before getting out of the pod.</p><p>Willow noticed her clothes had been altered into a black, sleeveless, skin-tight bodysuit with scale-like armor protecting her torso, shoulders, back, and her legs from her knees down. Heavy boots had replaced the wedge heels she’d been wearing, too.</p><p>“Why am I wearing this?”</p><p>“I didn’t think to program that out. Sorry. Hey, at least it’s not a silvery cat suit.”</p><p>“Catsuit? What?”</p><p>“Never mind.”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Star Wars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Goa'uld have arrived.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Prime Cube was in orbit around Mars when short range scans detected a hyperspace window open, and a large space craft shoot out within one million kilometers of Pluto. Instantly, the Collective formed. The Nets harvesting hydrogen from the sun ceased and headed to Mars to join the Prime Cube in orbit.</p><p>The invading craft, a Ha’tak according to Stargate Command’s records, had been expected by the Borg even before Dr. Daniel Jackson’s warning to the SGC. Long range scans had detected the ship six weeks prior while it traveled through hyperspace. Hyperspace shared many of the same qualities as the trans-warp corridors the original Borg used, but it was most similar to quantum slipstreams. Both could be detected by Borg sensors within a hundred light-years.</p><p>Xander primed all eighteen Hexa-darts. He would be in direct control of them, so he spent a few precious seconds going through every attack pattern he had devised and ran sixteen thousand simulations for each one before he launched the darts from their bay within the Prime Cube. Before they were clear of the cube, Xander activated their cloaking and sent them to intercept the Ha’tak.</p><p>From all indications the Ha’tak hadn’t detected any of the Borg ships, which proved their cloaking and stealth technology couldn’t be penetrated by Goa’uld sensors. Unless, of course, the Goa’uld weren’t actively scanning the system for some reason. That seemed highly unlikely.</p><p>The voices of the other Individual Drones became quieter as Xander refined their thoughts and personalities into a single driving mind. A hive mind that operated at nanosecond speeds. Only Xander retained some semblance of individuality, though his individuality was mostly present to mitigate, or otherwise avoid the original Borg’s penchant toward overly mechanical behavior, and also allow Borg systems to remain operational if the rest of the Collective was compromised or disabled somehow.</p><p>The Ha’tak moved at one fifth the speed of light until it reached Neptune, from there it slowed, and it went into orbit around the planet. This caused alarm to rattle throughout the Collective. Neptune, with its nitrogen rich atmosphere, was currently being mined by the Borg. Since it was of lower priority, they used sophisticated drones, the non-humanoid kind with sub AI programming, to farm nitrogen needed for their biogenics and terraforming programs. The automated drones possessed stealth shielding, however there were thousands of them on Neptune, and if anyone aboard the Ha’tak happened to look out of a window at the wrong moment they were unlikely to miss the black clouds of drones swarming over the surface of the planet.</p><p>In an instant, Xander de-cloaked his darts and fired on the Ha’tak. As expected, the darts’ phasers were absorbed by the Ha’tak’s shields, but they did get its attention. The Ha’tak fired at the darts with highly charged plasma energy from a dozen staff cannons. Though the cannons rate of fire was insultingly slow, sensors showed a single hit on a dart would reduce its ablative integrity to fifty percent. Fortunately, the staff cannons would need to get through their EM shielding first; if the cannons could land a direct hit at all.</p><p><i>Or maybe it wasn’t a matter of being too slow</i>, Xander considered.</p><p>He’d assumed the Ha’tak was targeting the darts by tracking their impulse drive emissions, but it was possible the stealth capable darts were invisible to the Ha’tak’s sensors, and it was aiming at where the darts last fired their phasers. </p><p>Xander set the darts in an attack pattern meant more to distract than cause damage. He wanted to hold back on the darts complement of dirty gravimetric torpedoes until the real fight started. He doubted they alone would be enough to penetrate the Ha’tak’s shields.</p><p>The Nets, flying in a tight diamond formation, swiftly moved into position a hundred thousand kilometers from the Goa'uld ship. Then they began firing on the Ha’tak, each focusing disruptor beams on a single point of its shields. The Ha’tak stopped firing on the darts and moved to engage the Nets, but not before launching Death Gliders to take care of the darts.</p><p>For one minute the Ha’tak allowed the Net’s disruptor fire to hit its shields as it fired thirty of its staff cannons at the Nets. The far more maneuverable Nets evaded most of the shots, allowing only a few to hit them. Their EM shields held, though their emitters strained under the bombardment.</p><p>Seeing its attack having little effect on its target, the Ha’tak attempted to evade the Net’s disruptors. But like it’s cannons, the Ha’tak was slow, and the disruptors continued their onslaught undeterred. </p><p>Meanwhile, the Darts flew circles around the Death Gliders, and easily dodged their cannon fire. </p><p>Xander held back on firing on the gliders. The Collective was aware the Jaffa were slaves to the Goa'uld. Brainwashed from birth to believe the parasitic beings were gods.</p><p>Being forcefully indoctrinated was something the New Collective understood well, and they believed the Jaffa deserved a chance to be free of the Goa'uld’s brand of spiritual assimilation. The Collective would only kill Jaffa if they couldn’t be forced to surrender, be captured, or assimilated.</p><p>One of the Nets broke away from formation and headed towards the fight between the gliders and darts. The Ha’tak focused several of it cannons on it, but soon refocused all its cannon fire on the remaining three Nets attacking it. In seconds, the Net captured a glider in a tractor beam and pulled it inside.</p><p>Xander, still controlling the darts, split his attention so he could watch what was about to happen to the glider inside the Net. The glider was placed inside an unused chamber that adjusted its size to fit the fighter craft. A low powered tractor beam held the glider in place and performed a deep scan of the glider’s hull.</p><p>A tremor of excitement ran through the Collective. As suspected: the Goa’uld ships were made of potent exotic materials! And highly likely powered by one, too!</p><p>Four green flashes of light filled the chamber as Unimatrix 12 transported in. The four Borg surrounded the craft, raised their hands and pierced the glider’s hull with assimilation tubules. Immediately the Collective understood the enormity of what the exotic materials that composed the glider’s hull offered them. </p><p>Xander calculated one component of the gliders hull, if processed and energized correctly, was enough to power the Prime Cube’s trans warp coils for two hundred and seven point five uninterrupted hours. With this material it was now possible to recreate and develop more advanced technology—but only if they could obtain more. And then there was the other significant alloy in the gliders hull. It was incredibly strong. On par with rodinium in terms of density and tensile strength.</p><p>The Nets broke off, retreating to Mars orbit to regroup with the Prime Cube. The darts also fell back, dodging fire from death gliders before reaching one percent the speed of light and leaving the gliders in their proverbial dust. Xander pulled the darts back into dock then joined the geek-out party occurring within the Collective.</p><p>“We need to board and take that ship,” Individual Four of Eight said, mentally licking his chops like a leopard about to pounce on an unwary antelope.</p><p>“Agreed. If even half of the Ha’tak is made up of that element, our power worries are over,” Individual Two of Two added, his ebullience as intense as Four of Eight’s.</p><p>“And I bet all the pretend money in all our pretend pockets that stuff is in the gas tank of every piece of tech they have,” Xander said.</p><p>“What about the crew?” Individual One of One asked. “The SGC believe the Goa'uld may have weapons we’ve never encountered before. Jaffa armed with those weapons could kill dozens of Individuals before we adapt.”</p><p>“He’s right,” Xander said. “We’ll have to hit them fast and hit them hard.”</p><p>“Ah,” Three of Six said, “another chance to make use of one of your creations.”</p><p>“<b>The Infiltrator Drones</b>?” Unimatrix 20 asked as one. “<b>Hell of a test run</b>.”</p><p>“We’re ready,” Individual One of Nine, the commander of Unimatrix 31 told the Collective.</p><p>Unimatrix 31 was made up of nine soldiers taken from the Initiative. Each had jumped at the chance to volunteer to enter Xander’s Borg stealth infiltrator program. When the soldiers were originally assimilated, they were converted into Advanced Borg Drones; heavy tactical drones the original Borg used in missions that required overwhelming brute force.</p><p>Heavily armored and outfitted with weaponry capable of demolishing a small city, Advance Borg Drones were walking tanks; and just about as maneuverable. They weren’t even given the cognitive enhancements other drones in the Collective had, just the necessary skills to destroy whatever was in front of them. They served no other purpose, so needed no other type of mental capacity.</p><p>“The worst kind of min/maxing,” Xander had said.</p><p>Xander rebuilt Unimatrix 31 from the ground up. Stripping away all their armor and most of their weapons. He took advantage of their super-reinforced endostructure and made them twice as strong as a standard Borg. At the same time, he reshaped their bodies to be smaller, thinner. Shorter and thinner than most of them were before they were assimilated. They became faster, more agile; and were given the tools to take advantage of their new flexible, speedy forms.</p><p> Instead of using tubules, they could fire tiny payloads of nanoprobes with a 0.016 inch diameter from launchers built into their hands and fingers. And not just nanoprobes, but other types of ordnance that can be preloaded or fabricated on the fly by specialized nanoprobes in their bodies as needed. The Infiltrators had standard adaptive Borg shielding capable of providing protection from sustained phaser fire for sixty seconds—more than enough time to adapt, or to escape. They had basic stealth and cloaking features similar to Xander’s Hexa-darts, though on a smaller scale, of course. Xander upgraded their overall intelligence as well, bringing them on par with all other Individual Drones in the Collective.</p><p>“The toughest person I know isn’t just about muscle,” Xander told them. “She’s quick and she’s smart, and I’ve never seen a better fighter.”</p><p>They were all aware he referred to Buffy Summers. For a brief time, she was a part of the Collective. A critical mistake on the part of the original Collective, but there was no denying much had been learned about combat from her temporary assimilation. Though it was clear there was something about being the Slayer that allowed Buffy to improvise and adapt in mid-battle the Collective have been unable to perfectly emulate.</p><p>“It may not be necessary to send your Unimatrix in,” One of One said to One of Nine. “With time we would overwhelm the Ha’tak’s shields and begin the standard form of assimilation. Any energy expended will be negligible if this new element is what we anticipate it to be.”</p><p>“Standard assimilation? Can we do that without killing a great number of the crew?” Three of Six asked.</p><p>“Better them than any of our people.”</p><p>There was a powerful tremor of agreement throughout the Collective.</p><p>“One of One’s logic is correct,” Three of Six said, “however we must take into consideration the possibility the Goa’uld could self-destruct the Ha’tak before we are able to assimilate it.”</p><p>“If that Ha’tak belongs to Apophis, going by SG-1’s reports on the guy, then he just might be petty enough to do that,” Xander said.</p><p>Xander sensed many within the Collective read the files stolen from Stargate Command concerning the System Lord.</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>,” One of One conceded.</p><p>“Then we send the Infiltrators and take the Ha’tak from within,” Xander said.</p><p>“And the Jaffa?” One of Nine asked.</p><p>“We give them a chance to surrender,” Xander said. “If they don’t…”</p><p>“<b>Assimilate anyone who resists</b>,” the Collective said as one.</p><p> </p><p>“My Lord,” his First Prime announced from one of the sub-system control podiums, “the enemy rapidly approaches!”</p><p>“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ship. We will add your technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.” </p><p>“<i><b>They dare</b></i>!”</p><p>Apophis glared at the view screen as it revealed five large ships, all larger than any Ha’tak, cruise towards them at sub-light speeds. He touched the control panel in front of him to zoom in on the ships until he could make out each one in more detail. </p><p> All were cube shaped. The largest had a white outer hull that appeared seamless and smooth as glass. Its appearance Apophis likened to a giant block of ice. The four smaller craft, each a fourth the size of the larger, seemed to be plated in gold and black colors, giving them a look somewhat similar to a Ha’tak. The smaller cubes outer layers lacked the glassy exterior of the larger. They had hulls that looked more mechanical in appearance, with all its piping, cables, and gaps thoughtlessly exposed.</p><p>The Ha’tak began to shake as the ships began firing upon it with energy weapons that weren’t plasma based, nor powered by naquadah. Which was impossible! No other power source in the galaxy could match the power of naquadah!</p><p>Even the cursed Asgard depended on the mineral to construct and power their vastly superior technology. Yet, the Borg’s weapons shook his Ha’tak! And weakened its shields after every impact!</p><p>The alien’s fighter craft appeared briefly on the screen before they began swarming, too fast to be accurately tracked by the viewer, and invisible to the Ha’tak’s other sensors until they fired their weapons.</p><p>“<i><b>Launch all Death Gliders to deal with those gnats</b></i>!” Apophis ordered his First Prime.</p><p>Apophis monitored the shields closely, careful not to allow their integrity to dip below a certain point. Once already the Borg’s attack nearly brought them down, forcing Apophis to draw on more power to keep them stable and strong under the relentless Borg onslaught. There was no need to be concerned about depleting their shield generators, however if the Borg somehow were able to overwhelm the shield generator’s output with greater power, then the shields would collapse. The Ha’tak could be destroyed, or significantly damaged, during the precious seconds it would require to restore shields.</p><p>So far, the Borg’s output of weapons fire remained constant, and were nothing the Ha’tak’s shields could not handle.</p><p>So far.</p><p>“<i><b>Jaffa, Kree</b></i>!”</p><p>Four Jaffa standing guard in the Pel’tak came to attention. Apophis turned away from the viewer to address them.</p><p>“<i><b>Prepare all Naquadah bombs. I want them ready to be deployed from Glider bays within the next twenty minutes</b></i>.”</p><p>“Yes, My Lord,” one of the Jaffa said before they exited the command chamber. Four more Jaffa arrived to replace them.</p><p>“<i><b>Contact my son and inform him to remain on the outer edges of the system when he arrives</b></i>,” Apophis said to his First Prime as he returned his attention to the viewer. “<i><b>This battle wearies me. I will end it in fire</b></i>.”</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Second Snake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The battle for the Ha'tak continues, and we reunite with some old friends.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks to LFW for the title of this chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Ha’tak had only come one third of the way to Mars by the time the Collective finished its quorum. The Nets rushed to meet them, with the Prime Cube not far behind. The four Nets swarmed the Ha’tak in much the same way the darts had. Though their evasions weren’t as deft, the Nets easily outpaced the Ha’tak’s weapons, and were able to fire upon the ship all the while.</p><p>The Prime Cube focused a wide-spread tractor beam on the Ha’tak’s shields, attempting to drain them and decipher their secrets at the same time. The shields weakened briefly under the constant barrage, then a huge output of energy would reinforce the shield, allowing it to regain its integrity seconds later, and the cycle would repeat.</p><p>One of One was correct. A sustained full assault would overwhelm the Ha’tak’s shields and collapse them. The drain on the Borg’s power generators would be significant, but acceptable. They would still have enough power to begin absorbing the Ha’tak piece by piece.</p><p>Soon the Collective discovered a slight variance in the shield’s frequency that occurred every time a shot from a Ha’tak’s staff cannon fired through it. Like Starfleet ships, the Ha’tak modulated its shields to match the frequency of its weapons, or vice versa, yet lacked the same precision the Federation had perfected.</p><p>The shields couldn’t exactly match the staff cannons frequency, only approximate it. So, when the cannons fired, the plasma bolts would pass through the shields the way a child’s wet finger passes through a soap bubble without popping it. Effective enough, but ultimately flawed, and exploitable.</p><p>Two Nets halted and drifted, luring the Ha’tak into believing its barrage of fire had disabled them. Predictably, the Goa’uld pressed their false advantage, and Ha’tak focused all its fire on the Nets. After their earlier skirmish with the Goa'uld ship, the Nets EM shielding had fully adapted to staff cannon fire and received negligible damage.</p><p>The more the Ha’tak fired their cannons, the closer the Collective was to deciphering their frequency, and thus its shield frequency. Then they had it! Less than a second later, Xander transported all nine Infiltrators through the Ha’tak’s shields and onto its pyramid.</p><p>And then he, and the rest of the Collective, watched them go to work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The benefits of being part of the Collective are vast. Xander was certain they hadn’t scratched the surface of everything they could do. Many Individual Borg consciously avoided broaching the subject, fearful that if the New Collective delved too deeply into the unknown depths of their nature, that the Collective could lose itself.</p><p>After all, none knew what the Borg given life might mean for their reality, or where it might lead in the future. They were an improbable thing that had never existed before. The road they traveled was a road they would have to build themselves, brick by brick.</p><p>However, they could not deny that experiencing the Infiltrator Drones sweep through the Ha’tak was thrilling. It gave the Collective a truly frightening and intoxicating sensation of power. The swiftness, the ease, and overwhelming force of the assault made the Collective begin to truly understand the strength they as Borg wielded.</p><p>Though connected to and bolstered by the Collective, Unimatrix 31 remained in tactical control. They initiated their attack while cloaked, firing assimilation payloads into the unarmored hands, necks, and faces of unsuspecting Jaffa with unerring accuracy and precision. The nanoprobe payloads, tiny needle-like darts, normally contained enough probes to quickly assimilate targets. The probes currently being used by the Infiltrators had been modified to slow the assimilation process, so that Jaffa shot with the needles showed no outward signs of change. All so the Infiltrators could maintain a low profile for as long as possible.</p><p>They’d injected forty Jaffa warriors by the time they encountered a lone Jaffa hustling through the maze of countless golden hallways with walls covered in hieroglyphics.</p><p>Unimatrix 31, still cloaked, paused in the passageway as Seven of Nine aimed his finger at the Jaffa and fired a needle at his exposed hand. The Jaffa stopped jogging and then with a swipe his Ma'Tok batted the needle away with ease. Any shock Unimatrix 31 felt was overcome in a nanosecond before every member fired needles at the Jaffa at once. The Jaffa bobbed and weaved, or casually swatted away any needles that could hit his exposed areas. All while wearing an unwieldy Serpent Guard helmet.</p><p>“Who the hell is this guy?” Xander asked. “Those needles are propelled at near bullet velocities!”</p><p>Of the forty Jaffa assimilated only twenty had their memories added to the Collective. Their personalities hadn’t yet emerged from the overwhelming process that is assimilation, but still the awe-filled words Master Bra’tac of Chulak came through their post assimilation fog loud and clear.</p><p>One of Nine made the decision to send the rest of Unimatrix 31 forward while he remained behind to deal with Bra’tac. The remaining eight Individual Drones dashed forward, and somehow even though they were cloaked, Bra’tac sensed each of them as they ran past. Six of Nine even had to skip out of the way of Bra’tac’s staff before it nearly took his head off when he got too close.</p><p>Bra’tac hadn’t moved to follow them just as One of Nine predicted.</p><p>“I know that you are still there,” Bra’tac said in Goa'uld. “Why have you come here?”</p><p>“’Beware of an old man…’” One of One said.</p><p>Connected to the Collective One of One’s comment was immediately understood by all.</p><p>“<b>Assimilate him</b>.”</p><p>One of Nine de-cloaked, likely to save power, but the action confused the Collective. Such a move meant One of Nine anticipated a drawn out confrontation with Bra’tac.</p><p>Did One of Nine really believe the Jaffa was that much of a threat?</p><p>“<b>We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile</b>,” the Collective’s voice emitted from One of Nine.</p><p>If the Borg’s hail/threat had any effect on Bra’tac, he showed little signs of it.</p><p>“You appear Tau’ri, and speak as the Tau’ri,” Bra’tac said, “yet you are unlike any I have ever encountered.”</p><p>“How does he know that?” Xander asked, once again confused by Bra’tac’s incredible intuition.</p><p>One of Nine, though clearly a bipedal humanoid, had no distinguishing features that showed he was from Earth. A thin layer of Borg body armor covered his black form-fitting coveralls, as well as the gloves and boots he wore. One of Nine also wore a black, opaque helmet that was not unlike the full-face motorcycle helmet that came with the costume Xander bought at Ethan’s. Other than his general shape and size, there was no way for Bra’tac to surmise One of Nine was Tau’ri and not one of countless diaspora the Goa’uld had taken as slaves millennia ago.</p><p>“I think I have it,” Four of Five said. “Goa’uld and Jaffa possess a form of ESP that gives them the ability to sense the presence of other Goa’uld. That could explain why Bra’tac sensed the cloaked Infiltrators and other factors about them.”</p><p>“That’s a stretch,” Xander said. “Where’s the correlation?”</p><p>“Once we finish assimilating Master Bra’tac, and the other Jaffa, we may be able to discover how he’s able to sense so much,” Three of Six said.</p><p>One of Nine rushed at Bra’tac, covering half the twenty meters between them in less than a second. Bra’tac threw his staff weapon at One of Nine, who snatched it out of the air before it could hit him. Immediately after the staff left his hands, Bra’tac followed its path, and almost at the same moment One of Nine caught the staff Bra’tac’s also grabbed it.</p><p>Despite being able to think and react at nanosecond speeds, One was nonetheless sent flying after Bra’tac fell backwards and flipped One with alarming swiftness. Not wanting to have his back to the Jaffa, One twisted in mid-air and landed on his feet, but the maneuver cost him his grip on the staff.</p><p>Bra’tac was far for finished. Almost as if he anticipated One’s mid-air recovery, Bra’tac pivoted on his knees and struck the side of One’s knee with the club-like energy reservoir on his staff as he landed. One experienced no pain, but the blow was strong enough to buckle his leg.</p><p>When Bra’tac motioned as if he was going to continue his attack, One realized it was a feint, and twisted out of the path of a blue energy beam aimed at his chest. The stream of energy came from a strange looking weapon Bra’tac held in his other hand. He’d hidden it just out of sight beneath his cloak.</p><p>As Bra’tac fired shot after shot, One gracefully dodged the relentless beams of galvanized energy sent his way. Making himself a hard target by turning and keeping his torso sideways as he deftly leaned from side-to-side to avoid the beams coming at him at a semi-automatic fire rate. Occasionally he had to evade the beams Bra’tac aimed at his legs by leaping back several feet.</p><p>“He’s very canny,” One of Nine said. “He’s using the…”</p><p>“Zat'nik'tel,” said Four of Five.</p><p>“I’m not calling it that,” One of Nine replied. “He’s using it to keep me at a distance. He’s not a passive fighter, so I’m sure he’s already come up with at least three other ways to attack me once he’s prepared. I may have to kill him.”</p><p>“Only if you believe your life is in danger,” Xander said. “His skills and knowledge are invaluable.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>Bra’tac advanced, the shots he fired from his Zat'nik'tel only missed hitting One of Nine by centimeters. One retreated bit by bit, but he was close to analyzing Bra’tac’s firing speed, and had already fabricated a fast-acting needle so he could do some shooting of his own.</p><p>Bra’tac dropped his staff. It was only due to One’s enhanced vision that he saw Bra’tac’s hand quickly reach behind his cloak just before he tossed a metallic orb at One’s feet. A Tok'Kal!</p><p>Too late One understood Bra’tac was never trying to hit him with that zap gun of his. Bra’tac had forced One into a section of the corridor without an entrance way to another chamber of the ship. One such entrance way Bra’tac now used to escape direct exposure to the intense sound and light that emitted from the Tok’Kal.</p><p>One fell to the floor on his back, his helmet smacking against the floor with a dull, metallic clang.</p><p>Once the Tok’Kal stopped emitting its stunning energy, Bra’tac dived out from the entrance way, firing his zap gun as he slid across the floor. Two bolts struck One’s prone body in quick succession. As Bra’tac stood he kept the zap gun trained on One when he slowly approached him.</p><p>“Ah!” Bra’tac said when he felt a needle shot from One’s finger pierced his shin.</p><p>One had modified the payload by giving the needle’s lumen the same ability to penetrate any unshielded object like tubules. It meant adding a hundred thousand more nanoprobes to the needle, depleting the discretionary supply of probes in his body, which could’ve been used to make four hundred “standard” assimilation rounds.</p><p>One also added a sedative to the needle strong enough to paralyze five Jaffa.</p><p>Bra’tac dropped his zap gun and almost collapsed, but One quickly rose to steady him. Bra’tac’s helmet opened, revealing a man in his mid-to-late fifties man with a scarred, swarthy complexion. The golden symbol of a First Prime was embedded in center of his forehead.</p><p>Amazingly, Bra’tac was still conscious and able to speak as an individual even though the payload One gave him should have overwhelmed most of his higher brain functions at that point.</p><p>“Who are you?” Bra’tac asked before his brown eyes glazed over and turned silvery-black.</p><p>One of Nine kept the newly assimilated Bra’tac on his feet until his identity merged and became one with the Collective, and he was beamed directly into a reversion pod on the Prime Cube.</p><p>“That was risky,” Three of Six said to One. “Our analysis shows another shot from the Zat'nik'tel would have fried every system in your body, organic and synthetic.”</p><p>“No,” One of Nine said, “Bra’tac is a good soldier. He knows any unknown in battle can get you and your people killed. He thought a third shot would disintegrate my body and then he might never find out who were and what we wanted. He needed that information, so I knew he would hold off firing the third shot.</p><p>“And eventually,” One of Nine continued, “we would need to adapt to that zap gun of theirs.”</p><p>“I suppose,” Three of Six said. “Though calculations show it will take, minimum, four more Zat'nik'tel hits before we adapt completely. Please refrain from risking yourself in such a manner again.</p><p>“You are not—none of us are—expendable.”</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>With the knowledge of Jaffa procedures and troop placement the Collective received from Bra’tac, the Infiltrators swept through the Ha’tak more effectively than before. They also learned of the second Ha’tak commanded by Apophis’s offspring, Klorel, that was expected to arrive at any moment in a prototype Ha’tak.</p><p>“Is it Christmas?” Xander said. “Because I didn’t get Apophis anything.”</p><p>“Don’t get ahead of ourselves,” One of One said. “We’ll be vulnerable while we’re assimilating Apophis’s ship. We should prepare the Nets for Klorel’s approach.”</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p>The Nets broke away from the battle. The Prime Cube and the darts pressed their own attacks to distract the Ha’tak from trying to pursue them to their fallback position near-Saturn orbit. This new plan of attack meant the Prime Cube had to expend more energy than they originally intended to make up for the absence of the Net’s attacks. Now it was imperative they took control of the Ha’tak before the cube ran out of main power and would then have to run back-up generators.</p><p>Xander began launching the darts compliment of gravimetric torpedoes to maintain a constant rate of attack and conserve power. The torpedoes bombardment nearly matched the damage output of the Nets despite being jury-rigged versions of the real thing. The darts were easily able to attack the Ha’tak while avoiding attacks from the thirty-six Death Gliders dauntlessly attempting to shoot them out of the sky.</p><p>While the Prime Cube and the darts were distracted, the Infiltrators made their way through every level of the Ha’tak’s pyramid. Steadily making their way up to the Pel’tak, where they expected to find Apophis. The three hundred assimilated Jaffa they left in their wake gave false orders to unassimilated Jaffa to herd them toward the Infiltrators. Other Borg Jaffa marched through the Ha’tak subtly assimilating and sabotaging the ship’s systems and gathering Goa’uld weapons and equipment for transport to the Prime Cube.</p><p>One system the assimilated Jaffa could not gain access to was the Ha’tak’s self-destruct, which they learned from Bra’tac did exist. The self-destruct wasn’t the only system they couldn’t breach. While the Borg were able to worm their way into several of the Ha’tak’s basic systems, the command functions were also locked out to them no matter how deeply they probed.</p><p>“It is because only the false gods possess the ability to access the systems we seek to control,” Bra’tac said.</p><p>Now fully integrated into the Collective, Bra’tac shared what he knew about the Goa’uld’s seemingly unique ability, and the Collective surmised there must be some form of genetic or even mental component necessary to unlock key systems that only the Goa’uld could wield.</p><p>“Then either we assimilate Apophis, or we prevent him from accessing those systems until we tear them apart,” Xander said.</p><p>Either way, nothing was going to stop the Collective from assimilating the Ha’tak.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“<i><b>You wish to go home to your planet</b></i>?” Klorel asked Jack in an almost gentle tone.</p><p>Jack knew better than to believe the Goa’uld intended to help them, but Jack wanted to believe he’d reached Skaara, and the kid influenced Klorel’s actions in some small way.</p><p>“Of course,” Jack said.</p><p>Klorel glance at one of the Jaffa and said, “<i><b>Jaffa, krel tak remoc</b></i>.”</p><p>The Jaffa reached out to place his hand on a small metal ball atop one of three pedestals in the command chamber. Then, just before the Jaffa could completely lower his hand, a strange chime filled the chamber. Klorel held up his hand and the Jaffa froze mid-motion.</p><p>On the view screen a Jaffa appeared, his forehead adorned with the ornate seal of a First Prime.</p><p>“Lord Klorel, your father orders you hold your position outside the system when you arrive, and to prepare for immediate departure at his command.”</p><p>“<i><b>What has happened</b></i>?” Klorel demanded. “<i><b>Where is my father</b></i>?”</p><p>The Jaffa on the screen stumbled and nearly lost his footing when the Ha’tak he was on shook from a powerful impact.</p><p>“He is leading the battle against an unknown force that call themselves the Borg. He bids you obey, My Lord Klorel!”</p><p>The Jaffa vanished from the view screen.</p><p>Klorel looked confused and pissed, and that made Jack worry about his and Teal’c’s continued survival. Just as Jack predicted Klorel turned to him and raised his hand, the one with the ribbon device on it, and aimed its gem center at Jack’s head.</p><p>“<i><b>What do you know of this attack</b></i>?” Klorel shouted, his eyes flashing with a white glow.</p><p>“Nothing!” Jack said.</p><p>“<i><b>Speak, or I will</b></i>…” Klorel paused and a looked passed over his face that Jack did not like. “<i><b>No. Your death does not frighten you</b></i>.”</p><p>Klorel turned away from Jack and he walked over to Teal’c.</p><p>“Now, wait a minute,” Jack said.</p><p>“<i><b>If you do not provide me with the answers I seek, then this Shol'va will suffer for every moment you do not</b></i>.”</p><p>“I’m telling ya, I don’t know about any attack!”</p><p>Klorel gave Jack a cruel smile and said, “<i><b>Very well. Let his suffering begin</b></i>!”</p><p>Before Klorel could activate the ribbon device the sounds of automatic gunfire interrupted him and drew the attention of everyone to the command chamber’s entrance. Seconds later Carter and Daniel came in blasting. They took out two Jaffa before they had to take cover when the remaining four Jaffa returned fire. When the Jaffa nearest Jack had Carter pinned behind the sarcophagus Jack gave him a quick kick to the groin and followed that up with a double hammer-fist to the back of the neck. And then just for good measure, punched him there again, finally knocking him out.</p><p>By the time Jack was done with his Jaffa, Carter and Daniel had finished off the rest, and Teal’c held Klorel at zat-point.</p><p>“<i><b>You will pay for this</b></i>—”</p><p>“Insolence. Yeah, yeah,” Jack said dismissively. “Teal’c, can you stop this thing?”</p><p>“I believe I can, O'Neill.”</p><p>“Alright, do it.”</p><p>Teal’c handed the zat gun over to Jack, who quickly covered Klorel. Before Teal’c placed his hand on the orb on the pedestal he warned them to brace for deceleration. Jack put his hand on the control panel and kept his aim steady on Klorel. Carter and Daniel used the sarcophagus to brace themselves.</p><p>Seconds after they came out of hyperspace Carter whispered:</p><p>“Oh my god!”</p><p>“What the hell…?” Daniel said.</p><p>Jack, not wanting to take his eyes off Klorel for an instant, motioned with the zat for Klorel to move over to Teal’c, who restrained him. Klorel looked ready to spit nails until his gaze locked onto the view screen and saw what had stunned Carter and Daniel—and now Jack.</p><p>“I thought I misheard the guy,” Jack said as he gaped at the viewer, “but I’ll be damned if that isn’t a Borg cube.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Party Like It's 1999</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>SG-1 finally encounter the Borg.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>AN: You better be cackling, Dragan!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sir, you know who those ships belong to?” Carter asked.</p><p>Jack had to drag his gaze away from the viewer, his mind still reeling at the sight of Borg cubes just flying through space pretty as you please.</p><p>“Yeah. They’re Borg cubes. You know? From TV?”</p><p>When Carter gave him a blank expression Jack rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. How can he have the biggest brain on the planet working with him and she doesn’t know Star Trek lore. It’s like Carter skipped over the geek parts of being an egg-head.</p><p>“You’re gonna have to give us a little bit more of an explanation than that, Jack,” Daniel said without taking his eyes away from the screen.</p><p>“You too, Daniel?” Jack said.</p><p><i>Somehow, I’m the biggest nerd on the team</i>!</p><p>“I know of the Borg, O’Neill,” Teal’c said. “But are the Borg not a fictional race from Star Trek the Next Generation, a television program?”</p><p>“Thank you, Teal’c!” Jack exclaimed as he gave his other two teammates judgmental looks.</p><p>“<b><i>So, you do know of these beings that dare attack my father</i></b>!” Klorel said.</p><p>Jack held up a finger. “Uh ah-ah! You be quiet, the adults are talking.”</p><p>Klorel face twisted into a snarl at Jack’s glib dismissal, but he fell silent.</p><p>“Are you saying those ships look like something from a TV show, sir?”</p><p>“Not look like, damn near exactly alike,” Jack said. “The four smaller cubes are dead ringers, but I don’t recall any being all white like the big one.”</p><p>Daniel stepped closer to the viewer and adjusted his glasses before he said, “Well, whatever, whoever they are, they’re beating the hell out of Apophis’s Ha’tak.”</p><p>“<b><i>Impossible! None may overcome the mighty Apophis</i></b>!”</p><p>Jack ignored Klorel and looked at Teal’c.</p><p>“Have you ever heard of anybody out there with ships like those?” Jack asked.</p><p>“I have not.”</p><p>“Well, they can’t be actual Borg,” Jack said.</p><p>He’d seen some nutty things since he joined the SGC, but he doubted super powerful cyborg aliens that just happen to resemble the Borg existed in the real world.</p><p>“What do we do now, sir?”</p><p>“Carter?”</p><p>“I think she means what’s our next move?” Daniel said.</p><p>Jack shook off the amazement he felt at seeing the cubes and refocused on the mission.</p><p>“Right. First we need to get off this ship and then set off the charges.”</p><p>“How we gonna do that?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“This thing must has bays for the Death Gliders, right?” Jack glanced at Teal’c for confirmation.</p><p>“Indeed, Colonel O’Neill.”</p><p>Jack looked at Klorel and smiled.</p><p>“I think we have everything we need to open a path to one.”</p><p>“<b><i>I will not allow myself to be your hostage</i></b>!” Klorel said.</p><p>“It’s either that, or we leave you here to be assimilated by the Borg.”</p><p>“Sir.”</p><p>“Kidding.” Jack walked up to Klorel who was still restrained by Teal’c. “Look, this ship is going to blow, so either you tell your minions to give us safe passage, or we can all die here.”</p><p>“<b><i>I would rather perish than aid you</i></b>!”</p><p>Just at that moment the sound of banging from outside the bridge started.</p><p>Klorel hiked his chin then gave Jack a nasty, over-confident smirk.</p><p>“<b><i>Soon my Jaffa will breach this place and end your miserable existence. Surrender now and I may yet spare you</i></b>.”</p><p>“Yeah, right,” Jack said.</p><p>The banging got louder.</p><p>“Just a minute!” Jack shouted at the door before he turned back to his team. “Okay, people, options?”</p><p>“Will the Jaffa really risk Klorel’s safety to get us?”</p><p>“I believe they will, Daniel Jackson. It is likely they intend to heal Klorel in the sarcophagus should he be injured during their attempt to retake the Pal’tak.”</p><p>“Is there another way out of this room?” Jack asked.</p><p>“There is not,” answered Teal’c.</p><p>“Then we make our last stand here,” Carter said grimly.</p><p>Jack hated last stands. Especially when the other side had the better chance of surviving them.</p><p>Jack looked at the viewer and saw the four small cubes move away from the battle, and the white cube intensify its attack on Apophis’s ship. He also noticed tiny flashes of green light that seemed to come from random positions around the Ha’tak just before eruptions bloomed on its shields.</p><p>“How about we contact whoever is on those ships for help?” Jack looked at Teal’c. “Can you use this tin can’s communications to call our new friends?”</p><p>“I should be able to send a broad transmission, however there is no way to be certain these newcomers will be able to receive it.”</p><p>“Try it.”</p><p>“Sir, we don’t even know if the people on those ships are friendly.”</p><p>“Enemy of my enemy, Carter.”</p><p>Teal’c pushed Klorel over to Jack before he went to an orb and pedestal different from the one that brought the Ha’tak out of hyperspace.</p><p>“Carter, you and Daniel get ready for the Jaffa to breach.”</p><p>Carter and Daniel took cover behind the end of the sarcophagus near the main control panel, while Jack pulled his sidearm and used Klorel as a meat shield.</p><p>“<b><i>Release me</i></b>!” Klorel demanded once he realized what Jack was about to use him for.</p><p>“Nope. Unless you wanna tell your guys to stand down, whatever happens to me happens to you first.”</p><p>“O’Neill, I have sent the message.”</p><p>“Good, now find some cover.”</p><p>Teal’c hefted a Zat gun and took up residence behind the control panel.</p><p>The banging and clanging became louder. It sounded like the Jaffa were close to prying open the doors to the bridge.</p><p>“Hold your fire,” Jack told his team. “I’m going to let them know we have Klorel. Maybe that’ll buy us time.”</p><p>“Yessir.”</p><p>“Last chance,” Jack told Klorel.</p><p>“<b><i>I will delight as you breathe your last breath</i></b>.”</p><p>“Cheery.”</p><p>Jack pulled Klorel behind one of the pedestals and raised his gun and aimed it at the doors.</p><p>The doors to the bridge parted with a loud screech as several pairs of hands gripped the door panels and the Jaffa outside pried them open with brute strength.</p><p>“Listen, snake heads, I got your puny god with a gun to his head, so unless you want to risk the life of Daddy Apophis’s little rug rat, stay the hell outta here!” Jack shouted at the Jaffa about to swarm the bridge.</p><p>There was no movement beyond the door that Jack could see, but he knew the Jaffa weren’t going to fret too much at his toothless threat. He watched the entrance closely waiting for whatever came next so he could shoot at it. What came next was a silver ball tossed into the room that landed in front of Klorel and Jack.</p><p>Jack felt Klorel tense. It was different than the constant resistance in his thin, but surprisingly strong arms, this tension felt like Klorel was bracing himself for something. Jack really knew the ball was bad news when Klorel cursed under his breath.</p><p>Before Jack could get off a shot at the metal orb it released a blinding white light that made Jack flinch and turn his head away. The light kept up for five seconds. Then ten. Fifteen seconds passed before it shut off abruptly as if a someone flipped a switch.</p><p>“What the hell was that about?” Jack said.</p><p>Teal’c fired his Zat at a Jaffa that poked his head through the doorway. Jack saw the Jaffa drop to the floor in convulsions, and a moment later someone pulled the downed Jaffa from view.</p><p>“That was a Tok'Kal—a shock grenade,” Teal’c said. “We should be unconscious after direct exposure to its effects.”</p><p>“I’m fine. Carter? Daniel?”</p><p>“All good, sir.”</p><p>“M’Good.”</p><p>“Most unusual,” Teal’c said.</p><p>Jack had to agree. Something weird was going on. Jack dragged Klorel closer to the doorway. He made sure the Goa’uld blocked most of his vital areas, except his head, as he approached. Though his view wasn’t clear, Jack could see half a dozen Jaffa standing stock still just outside the door. A bit to his left he saw the prone form of the Jaffa Teal’c stunned.</p><p>“<b><i>What has happened? Why do they stand as statues</i></b>?” Klorel asked, his Goa’uld voice sounded panicked and stranger for it.</p><p>“On a break?” Jack quipped though he wanted to know what made the Jaffa immobile as well.</p><p>Still, no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.</p><p>“Carter, Teal’c, Daniel, looks like we have a way out,” Jack said as he turned to look at his teammates.</p><p>And that’s when he saw it. An unequivocal, no mistaking it for anything but, Borg cube hovering in front of the viewer. It was as large as the white cube battling Apophis’s ship, but it was black. Parts of it gave off a golden luminescence instead of the neon green Jack saw the Borg cubes on Star Trek give off.</p><p>“<b><i>What is this madness</i></b>?” Klorel said as he gazed at the cube.</p><p>The others attention went to the viewer at Klorel’s wail.</p><p>“Where did that one come from?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“I think… I think it’s the other four cubes combined,” Carter said.</p><p>“Cool,” Jack said.</p><p>Jack felt all the tension in Klorel drain from his body. Before Jack could process why Klorel stopped resisting, Teal’c and Carter shouted:</p><p>“O’Neill!”</p><p>“Colonel!”</p><p>Carter aimed down the sights of her MP-5 and Teal’c pointed his Zat, both brandishing their weapons in Jack’s general direction.</p><p>Jack wanted to let out his own shout of warning when he saw a black garbed figure materialize behind the others. The figure stood in front of the main control panel with their back to the rest of the room. They wore head gear of some kind that reminded him of a motorcycle helmet, only the helmet the figure wore didn’t seem to have any visible way to put it on or take it off. It looked as though it was seamlessly attached to their armored jerkin somehow.</p><p>“Jack, on your left,” Daniel said.</p><p>Slowly, Jack turned his head and saw another black clad figure standing next to him, just behind his shoulder. Like the first figure, this one also had a slender build, and they didn’t appear to display any physical features that identified them as a man or a woman. Though with the helmet, this one was as tall as Jack.</p><p>“Uh… Hi?”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Unimatrix 31, sans Individual Drones Seven and Nine, closed in on the bridge of the Ha’tak. Apophis's precautions became more apparent once they reached the command level of the pyramid. Hundreds of unassimilated Jaffa marched in formation through every hallway that led to the bridge, which made it challenging and time consuming to hit them with needles unnoticed.</p><p>And time was running out. Every projection the Collective ran showed Apophis either abandoning ship or setting off the self-destruct once he realized he could not take the Prime cube in battle. It was imperative they gain control of the Ha’tak or Apophis before then.</p><p> Xander ordered a dozen assimilated Jaffa to meet with the remaining members of Unimatrix 31. The Borg Jaffa marched up to the command level in formation, and once they joined with Unimatrix 31 the cloaked One, Two, and Three of Nine took up positions behind the Jaffa and marched in step behind them. Four, Five, Six, and Eight of Nine stayed behind to start assimilating the Jaffa that flooded the command level.</p><p>As expected, the Borg Jaffa were allowed to pass the many Jaffa guarding the hallways unquestioned until they reached the bridge. Four Jaffa sentries stood outside the Pel’tak’s sealed doors. As the Jaffa that led them to the bridge marched away One and Three of Nine needled the guards. The first guard to be assimilated into the Collective turned a snake symbol on the door and opened it.</p><p>One and the others followed the newly assimilated Jaffa inside where four fully armored Jaffa guards were stationed around the room. At the center was Apophis, his attention focused on the viewer and the looming presence of the Prime cube that showed on it.</p><p> Three of Nine fired a needle at the back of Apophis’s exposed neck. A golden barrier flared around Apophis when the assimilation needle struck it and alerted the Jaffa sentries, who frantically searched the room for where the attack originated. Apophis whirled around as well. One saw the Goa’uld’s eyes look directly at where he and the others stood cloaked. Like Bra’tac, Apophis also possessed the ability to sense the presence of cloaked Borg. </p><p>“<b><i>Jaffa! Kree</i></b>!” Apophis shouted and pointed at the seemingly empty space where Unimatrix 31 gathered.</p><p>After seconds of disarray the Jaffa got over their confusion and obeyed Apophis’s command, and began firing their staff weapons, but the Infiltrators were able to easily dodge the blind-fire.</p><p>One side-stepped one plasma burst before he fired two piercing needles at the Jaffa nearest the doors. Because he was in the direct path of several blasts, Three dive out the way and rolled smoothly into a crouching pose. Two ran directly at the Jaffa firing from Apophis’s right, dodging to the left and then to the right, and slipped behind the Jaffa. She used her re-fabricated tubules to penetrate his armor, then quickly moved to the remaining Jaffa and assimilated him as well.</p><p>In the five seconds it took the Infiltrators to pacify the Jaffa guards, Apophis had rushed over to the upper left corner of the bridge. Two tried to approach Apophis from behind as well, her intent was to penetrate his personal shield by using her tubules to by-pass its inertial dampening aspects. Before she reached him, Apophis turned and aimed his Kara kesh at her still cloaked form. A beam of orange energy shot out and struck her center mass, and sent her flying back with great force. Three leaped from his crouched position and intercepted her in mid-air. Both tumbled head over heels for a second before they pushed apart and landed pat on their feet.</p><p>“<b><i>Whoever you are, you will come to regret this affront to the great God Apophis</i></b>!” Apophis declared while he held out his gauntlet covered hand and pointed at the Borg.</p><p>One de-cloaked, as did the rest of Unimatrix 31. Apophis’s eyes narrowed at their appearance.</p><p>“<b>Your false claims of divinity are irrelevant; you will be assimilated</b>.”</p><p>Fury and a very real light burned in Apophis eyes. “<b><i>And you will perish in the flames of my vengeance</i></b>!”</p><p>The ceiling over Apophis’s head opened and three Transportation rings lowered around him. A beam of yellow light enveloped Apophis before it shot up through the rings and vanished. The three rings then returned to their recess in the ceiling.</p><p>“Does anyone think he was talking metaphorically?” Xander said.</p><p>“A far as our sensors show he hasn’t activate the self-destruct,” One of One said.</p><p>“Then he must have found another way to destroy the Ha’tak and take us with it,” Three of Six replied.</p><p>“Until we find out what it is, we can’t risk assimilation,” said Xander. “We should begin transporting all Jaffa and retinue to the cube.”</p><p>“Should we? That would be a massive drain of power,” One of One said.</p><p>“Do you disagree with saving them?” Xander asked.</p><p>“No. We can’t let five thousand people die. However, if we don’t find Apophis’s trap in time, after transporting so many our shields will not hold, and we may not be able to escape to a safe distance.”</p><p>“Suggestions?” Three of Six said.</p><p>“Trade places with the Net-cube,” One of One said. “Together they have more power at their disposal. The two Infiltrators and SG-1 have Klorel’s Ha’tak under control, so we don’t need to worry about any attacks coming from it.”</p><p>The Collective mulled over One of One’s suggestion for almost a microsecond.</p><p>“<b>Agreed</b>.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Jack pulled an unresistant Klorel with him away from the second black clad figure, and rejoined the rest of his team, who’d retreated to another part of the bridge. Carter held her weapon ready, but aimed it at the floor, while Teal’c kept his Zat trained on the intruders. Daniel just looked confused.</p><p>The intruder that had appeared behind Jack walked over to a podium, raised their hand over the orb on top, and then two familiar thin, black tendrils emerged from their fingers and connected with the orb.</p><p>“Who are you guys?” Jack asked.</p><p><i>Please don’t say we are the Borg. Please don’t say we are the Borg. Please don’t say we are the Borg</i>.</p><p>“We are the Borg,” the black clad figure at the main controls said with a modulated, sexless voice.</p><p>Jack winced. “I was afraid you’d say that,” he said.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” the other so-called Borg said with the same artificial voice. “We aren’t here to hurt you or your team.”</p><p>“Although we would appreciate you turning Klorel over to us,” said panel Borg.</p><p>“Uh, what do you want with him?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“We lost Apophis, so Klorel is our only option to figure out how to access the upper tier control systems of a Ha’tak,” replied the control panel Borg, who still hadn’t turned away from whatever it was doing there.</p><p>“By assimilating Klorel?” Jack asked.</p><p>“Correct. We’ve already begun the process. So please hand him over.”</p><p>Jack turned Klorel around and kept a grip on his shoulders. Klorel’s dull eyes stared unseeingly at Jack. A second later they began to turn black and silver.</p><p>“What about the host?” Jack asked, looking at the Borg. “Can you remove the Goa’uld inside him before you assimilate him?”</p><p>“Unclear,” panel Borg said.</p><p>“Care to explain what that means?”</p><p>The Borg at the controls finally turned around. Jack couldn’t tell if they were looking back at him because of the smooth, round, featureless helmet they wore, which Jack decided didn’t look much like a motorcycle helmet after all. It was too small; the helmet seemed molded to fit the precise dimensions of the Borg’s head. There barely seemed enough space inside the helmet to comfortably fit their nose, and none to move their jaw.</p><p>“We want to put the symbiotes through more analyses before we try to remove or assimilate them,” panel Borg replied. “We know Goa’uld larvae act as an immune system for Jaffa, and our nanoprobes can take over that function if we have to remove them, but we have no idea what happens to the host of an adult Goa’uld if it’s removed.”</p><p>Jack looked a Klorel, and for a moment saw Skaara. Jack gave each member of SG-1 a look and received slights nods in response. Then Jack looked at the Borg.</p><p>“Mind if we discuss this amongst ourselves for a while?” he asked.</p><p>“Of course, Colonel O’Neill,” panel Borg said before turning back to the main control panel.</p><p>Jack frowned at hearing the Borg call him by his name and rank but ignored it for the moment.</p><p>“So, they don’t look or act like any Borg I’ve ever saw on Star Trek,” Jack said once the team moved to the other end of the bridge for privacy.</p><p>“Indeed,” Teal’c said. “I seem to remember the Borg shaped as both robot and flesh. They were also quite an aggressive race.”</p><p>“Right? These guys haven’t threatened to assimilate us even once!”</p><p>“Sir, with all due respect, we shouldn’t identify these people as Borg. Whoever—whatever—they are, they can’t be a fictional race of people from a TV show. It’s just not possible.”</p><p>Jack gave Carter a look. “So, it’s just a coincidence they have big ass cube-shaped spaceships, assimilate folks, and also call themselves the Borg? You know I don’t believe in coincidences, Captain.”</p><p>“Neither do I, sir, but what other rational explanation is there?”</p><p>“Either, way,” Daniel said, “they saved us from the Jaffa just now. That has to count for something.</p><p>“And what if they really do find a way to safely remove Goa’uld from hosts?” Daniel asked. “They could save Skaara, Sha're, and countless others.”</p><p>“Yeah, but I’m not giving Skaara to them without more to go on,” Jack said.</p><p>Daniel gave Jack a pensive look, but in the end nodded in agreement.</p><p>“We have another thing to consider,” Carter said. “Should we really stand by and allow them to gain control of the ship?”</p><p>“They neutralized a dozen Jaffa in but moments,” Teal’c said. “I am uncertain how we may hinder their efforts.”</p><p>“Carter’s got a point, though. Even if we can’t stop them from boosting this thing, we at least need to find out what they intend to do afterwards.”</p><p>Jack shuddered at the thought of these guys being anything like the Borg from TV. Those Borg would be an even bigger threat than the Goa’uld.</p><p> “Although, we have an ace up our sleeve if these guys plan on screwing us over. Tell me you set the C4 on automatic timer,” Jack said to Carter.</p><p>“I set the C4 on automatic timer.”</p><p>“Good. How long do we have?” Jacked asked as he glance at his watch.</p><p>“Twenty-four hours,” Carter said.</p><p>Jack blinked then exclaimed, “Twenty-four hours!”</p><p>“At the time, sir, I thought we were still light years away from Earth,” Carter said in her defense, though she did look slightly abashed.</p><p>Jack took a breath before he said, “It’s fine. We can still set them off manually if we have to.”</p><p>When the team meeting broke apart, Jack looked at the Borg and saw the one that probably assimilated Skaara was finished doing whatever it was he did to the podium, and joined his pal at the control panel.</p><p>“Uh, excuse me,” Jack called out to the pair.</p><p>“Yes, Colonel O’Neill?”</p><p>Neither Borg turned around, so Jack had no idea which one responded.</p><p>“Mind if I ask what you plan to do when you have control of the ship?”</p><p>“Assimilate it.”</p><p>“And then?”</p><p>The Borg that assimilated Klorel turned around and said:</p><p>“Party like it’s 1999.”</p><p>Jack looked at his team and saw Carter and Daniel look as perplexed as Jack felt.</p><p>“I’m sorry, but... how do you know that phrase?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“From the greatest Prince album of all time? How could I not know it?”</p><p>Daniel stepped forward. “What’s your name?”</p><p>“I go by Seven of Nine,” the Prince fan said.</p><p>Jack looked at the Borg’s slender, androgynous physique and said, “Not that Seven of Nine, I presume?”</p><p>Seven of Nine laughed. “You wish!”</p><p>“My designation is Nine of Nine,” said the other Borg.</p><p>“Do you have… any other names?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“The question Dr. Jackson is dancing around is: are you from Earth?” Jack said.</p><p>If they are, it would explain a lot, Jack thought. Like why they call themselves Borg. Maybe as some kind of homage.</p><p>Neither alleged Borg offered an answer. Nine of Nine stopped manipulating the control panel for a moment and took what looked like to Jack a deep breath before they resumed working on the panel.</p><p>“Tough question?” Jack asked.</p><p>“We were once human, yes,” Seven of Nine finally said.</p><p>“How is that possible?” Carter asked. “Your ships are technologically superior to anything currently found on Earth. Just gathering the raw materials to construct them is beyond what we’re capable of!”</p><p>“Exactly,” Jack agreed. “And I think somebody would notice them being built. They don’t exactly blend in with the… Well, any scenery, really.”</p><p>Seven of Nine held up their hand and replied, “The answers you want are complicated. We can explain later if you don’t mind waiting until we finish our work here and return to our base.”</p><p>“Your base? Where is that? Earth?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“No,” Seven of Nine said. “Jupiter.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Who</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The battle between the Borg and the Goa'uld comes to an end.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Apophis transported into the Al’kesh, his First Prime and four Jaffa warriors waited for him. Fifty more Jaffa warriors occupied the passenger section of the Al’kesh in preparation for a ground assault.</p><p>“<b><i>Have my commands been obeyed</i></b>?” Apophis asked once the rings lowered back into their compartment in the floor.</p><p>“Yes, Lord Apophis,” the First Prime said with a bowed head.</p><p>“<b><i>Then prepare to disembark</i></b>.”</p><p>Apophis took his place at the center of the bridge in a command chair behind control station where the pilot and co-pilot sat. His First Prime took a position at the main control panel in front of the pilots, where he would monitor the ship’s sensors, shields, and weapons. </p><p>Apophis saw the three other Al’kesh he ordered prepared docked on either side of his corvette. Each decoy Al’kesh had Jaffa with symbiotes nearing their adult stages to confuse sensors should the Borg attempt to locate Apophis with theirs. The other Al’kesh had a full complement of ground troops as well.</p><p>All three Al’kesh cloaked before the bay doors in front of them opened, and they evacuated the Ha’tak simultaneously. Before they left the immediate vicinity of his Ha’tak, Apophis saw the Borg’s cube ship had ceased its bombardment on the pyramid ship. In the surrounding space, his Death Gliders still ineffectually engaged the quick moving Borg attack craft, which flew loops and rolls around the gliders, obviously toying with them.</p><p>Apophis frowned when he noticed several hundred thousand kilometers ahead, another giant Borg cube ship was stationed next to Klorel’s Ha’tak. Neither ship attacked the other. With a silent snarl, Apophis realized the Borg had taken control of his son’s ship, and likely assimilated Klorel—whatever that entailed.</p><p>“<b><i>Release the bombs</i></b>,” Apophis said just before they cleared the Ha’tak.</p><p>“Yes, My Lord!”</p><p>Fifty high yield naquadah bombs were dropped from the Al’kesh’s bomber bays. That was the visual signal to the other two Al’kesh to unload their stock of twenty bombs each into the space beneath the hull of the Ha’tak.</p><p>“<b><i>Maintain our current speed and take us beyond the ringed planet</i></b>,” Apophis commanded.</p><p>At their current speed they would reach the planet in less than five minutes, far longer than if they traveled at maximum sub-light speed. Apophis feared if they went any faster the Borg would detect their sub-light engines, and for Apophis’s scheme to succeed he and the bombs needed to remain undetected until he was far away.</p><p>At the moment the naquadah bombs were deactivated, and likely indistinguishable from the Ha’tak’s hull. When Apophis was at a safe distance only then would the bombs arm and allow Apophis to detonate them remotely with his Kara kesh. Though he would not be able to witness the impudent Borg’s destruction with his own eyes, Apophis took great pleasure in knowing he will see the glorious explosion that swallowed them in fiery death.</p><p>His First Prime turned from the control panel.</p><p>“What of Lord Klorel? His Ha’tak will be caught in the explosion.”</p><p>“<b><i>I ordered Klorel to remain outside the system</i></b>,” Apophis said. “He failed to obey me! Whatever fate he suffers due to his folly is not my concern!”</p><p>“Of course, My Lord!” </p><p>The First Prime bowed deeply before returning his attention to the panel.</p><p>Though his words were dismissive and harsh, Apophis did feel regret at losing his child. Klorel was to be his legacy, an ally he could trust more than any other in the galaxy. But the Borg threat needed to end here—now. If he had to sacrifice his son to bring it to pass, then it was a price Apophis was willing to pay without hesitation.</p><p> </p><p>The Collective scanned the Ha’tak a hundred times before they were satisfied whatever Apophis had planned it likely involved the Ha’tak’s bio-locked systems. </p><p>The Net-cube had already transported half the Ha’tak’s occupants to reversion pods where their assimilation into the Collective started. Most would be reverted to unaltered Jaffa, eventually, but three hundred and seventeen Jaffa—and there were certain to be more—were so indoctrinated, and their desire for conquest so invasive, that the Collective felt it would be irresponsible to release them. Their hunger for domination and utter lack of remorse for the countless genocides they participated in, reminded Xander of the soulless behavior of vampires. So, the Collective decided to keep those Jaffa assimilated indefinitely. </p><p>“This is questionable,” One of One said once the decision was made, though he had agreed with the resolution and had not expressed any reservations.</p><p>“We have shown them the truth found in Klorel’s mind, and they still refuse to renounce the Goa’uld as gods,” Three of Six said. “We can’t force the Jaffa to accept reality if they don’t want to.”</p><p>“Can’t we?” One of One said.</p><p>“Whoa,” Xander said, “you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”</p><p>“Is altering what and how the Jaffa think any more or less violating than assimilation?”</p><p>“They still possess their own thoughts and beliefs. Their own personalities,” Xander insisted.</p><p>“Inside Unimatix 0.1—a prison for their minds.”</p><p>“What is your complaint, exactly?” Xander asked, quickly growing impatient with One’s argumentative posture.</p><p>“I have no complaints. I did agree with the Collective’s decision to assimilate them, after all.”</p><p>“Then what is it you suggest as an equally viable alternative?” Three of Six asked.</p><p>“If he had another option in mind why not state it before the Collective decided to assimilate the Jaffa?” Xander said.</p><p>“Because, ultimately, I have no real quarrel with assimilating them.”</p><p>If Xander could have sighed in frustration he would have.</p><p>“Then what’s with this whole pointless conversation?”</p><p>“The point is we’ve altered the thoughts and feeling of people we’ve assimilated before,” One of One said.</p><p>“The original Collective did that, not us,” Xander shot back.</p><p>“Yes. But I haven’t noticed any efforts to revert those altered in mind by the original Collective back to who they were before assimilation.”</p><p>A vibration of discomfort went through the Collective, and none had an immediate response to One’s accusation. Because, of course, he was right. The Collective had no intention of adding amoral and corrupted individuals to their quorum. It could upset the delicate balance they built after the original Collective dissolved. It was a risk they refused to take. </p><p>“We allow rapists, murderers, abusers, and even those who schemed with demons to wipe out humanity, to remain pacified within our Collective because they no longer are who they were before.” </p><p>One of One pressed on.</p><p>“As I said, I do not disagree with assimilating the Jaffa. If I’m being honest, I think there is a valid argument for assimilating all the Jaffa. However, it should be recognized that we are on extremely shaky ethical and moral ground when we forcefully assimilate others regardless of whatever crimes they committed in the past or will commit in the future.”</p><p>“You point is taken, One of One,” Xander conceded. “I don’t think mind control is something anyone feels comfortable with, but it’s on the table if we can’t figure out another solution separate from assimilation.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p> </p><p>Any technology not bolted to the Ha’tak was beamed to the Net-cube. Including three hundred tons of weapons grade naquadah. If they did end up losing the ship to Apophis’s sabotage, procuring the two hundred bars of enriched naquadah would make their encounter with the Goa’uld worth all the time and energy they expended.</p><p>“Alright, that’s all of them,” Xander said once the last group of Jaffa were beamed aboard the Net-cube.</p><p>Xander had the darts abandon their dogfight with the Death Gliders and flew them to Apophis’s Ha’tak. He had the darts form a geodesic formation around the ship and attach tractor beams to it. Taking the Ha’tak out past Saturn would have been the safest choice, since it was the largest area of empty space in the system. But Xander had a feeling Apophis’s trap could go off at any moment, so there wasn’t time enough to get there. The nearest sufficiently empty area of space would have to do.</p><p>While the darts towed the Ha’tak, the Net-cube intercepted the Death Gliders before they could target the now slower moving darts. The Net-cube began beaming the Gliders inside. Once inside, the Glider pilots were transported from the cockpits and transferred into pods.</p><p>“Hold on,” Three of Six said.</p><p>Instantly, the rest of the Collective’s attention was drawn to what Three saw. Below the Ha’tak they spied ninety beach ball sized metal spheres. The orbs had been caught in the Ha’tak’s gravity and were being dragged along as the darts pulled the ship into the space between Jupiter and Saturn’s orbits.</p><p>“What are those?” Xander asked.</p><p>“Those are naquadah bombs,” Bra’tac said.</p><p>“So that’s how Apophis wants to take us out, huh?” said Xander.</p><p>If Three of Six hadn’t been “eye-balling” the Ha’tak...</p><p>Xander ran a passive scan over the bombs and found no indication that any of them were armed.</p><p>“He’ll set them off when he’s at a safe distance,” Xander surmised. “Which means… Have we finished assimilating an Al’kesh yet?”</p><p>“Unimatrix 9 just completed the assimilation of one,” Three of Six said.</p><p>“Give me everything you have on their cloaking ability.”</p><p>A microsecond later Xander learned everything there was to know about Al’kesh cloaks, including how to penetrate them. He activated short and mid-range scanners, and quickly located three cloaked ships moving at half the speed of light towards Saturn. As the cloaked Al’kesh put more distance between them and the Borg, the further they spread apart from each other.</p><p>“A shell game,” Xander mused. “Clever.”</p><p>“We’ve run the calculations and one naquadah bomb has the explosive yield of 10 isotons,” Three of Six said.</p><p>“Can we neutralize them before they’re armed?” Xander asked.</p><p>“They have naquadah alloy shells,” Three said. “Those can’t be penetrated and manipulated by our scanners. We’ll have to disarm the bombs manually one by one.”</p><p>“Can we destroy them safely?”</p><p>“Not with any of the weapons we currently possess.”</p><p><i>Good</i>.</p><p>Xander wanted to strip the bombs of their naquadah cores almost as much as he wanted to stop them from blowing up and killing everything in a hundred million kilometer radius.</p><p>“Understood. Now here’s my plan,” Xander said.</p><p>Xander told the Collective how he would deal with the bombs. Once they agreed, he beamed all ninety naquadah bombs into the Net-cube. He placed them within one of eight chambers—two in each Net—designed contain warp cores. </p><p> Next, Xander formed a subspace barrier around the bombs. Though the barrier wasn’t very potent, it would be effective enough to block any transmissions Apophis could send to detonate them. And because the barrier was relatively weak it didn’t appreciably drain their power reserves, so the Borg could maintain the barrier around the bombs as long as they needed.</p><p>Less than five seconds after the bombs were transported into the Net-cube, all three Al’kesh jumped into hyperspace. Each heading in different directions so if the Borg chose to give chase, they’d have to guess which Al’kesh carried Apophis.</p><p>“Say what you want about Apophis,” Xander said, “but the guy sure knows how to cover his ass.”</p><p> </p><p>It took a great deal of restraint to resist assimilating Apophis and Klorel’s Ha’taks where they sat in space. Instead, the cubes each towed one of the Goa’uld ships to Unicomplex 1, which was locked in a low stationary orbit over Jupiter.</p><p>Unicomplex 1 was 100 kilometers long, and 30 square kilometers wide—excluding the four 40 kilometer oblong pylons attached to each end of the structure. The main complex had a long, curved rectangular shape, with the chord aimed at the planet. The outer shell of the complex had the same smooth, snow white ablative enamel that layered the Prime cube. It had no visible windows or ports.</p><p>Xander often compared the Unicomplex’s design to a giant, perfectly shaped French fry someone bent into an arch before they attached two ostrich eggs on both ends. </p><p>Really, the design had looked much cooler in his head.</p><p>As the cubes approached a port large enough for the Prime cube to slot into it appeared in the center apogee of the complex. The Prime and Net-cubes disengaged their tractor beams and let the Unicomplex pull the Goa’uld ships inside. After the Goa’uld ships entered the complex, SG-1 and the other passengers on Klorel’s ship were beamed off using the complex’s transporters. </p><p>SG-1 was beamed into one of the Unicomplex’s habitat areas, while the Jaffa were transported into thousands of waiting reversion pods in a section of the complex near the starboard pylons.</p><p>The Prime cube maneuvered above the apex of the complex and merged with the super structure, where it looked very much like a jewel lodged atop a tiara. Once connected, the cube began to draw power from the complex’s vast energy reserves. It would take two hours and seventeen minutes for the Prime cube to fully recharge.</p><p>The Net-cube added their contingent of captured Jaffa to the complex’s reversion pods. It also off-loaded the Goa’uld technology taken from Apophis’s Ha’tak so Unimatrix 8, 9, 12, and 29 could begin the assimilation process. Freed of its burden, the Net-cube split back into four parts and headed to the sun and resumed harvesting hydrogen.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s your base?” Jack said to the backs of Seven and Nine. “Looks weird.”</p><p>The all white structure sat just below Jupiter’s north pole. Right on the edge of the dark side of Jupiter’s terminator. Jack didn’t think the base’s placement was a coincidence. Even magnified on the viewer it looked minuscule compared to Jupiter’s massive size, but Hubble could capture clean pictures of Jupiter already, and more and more powerful telescopes were being built every day. The Borg placed their base so it couldn’t be easily seen unless it was viewed at a certain angles, and Jack doubted any of them could be found on Earth.</p><p>“My, God,” Daniel said. “It has to be the size of a city!”</p><p>“Sir, I think…”</p><p> Jack looked at Carter and saw her staring at the viewer with the starry eyed fascination she had whenever they came across some new advanced of technology.</p><p>“What is it, Captain?”</p><p>“Sir, I think… I think their base might be a type of gravity generator!”</p><p>“A what now?”</p><p>Carter spread her arms out as if tracing the shape of Borg’s orbital base with her hands.</p><p>“Well, look at its orbit. It should be caught in Jupiter’s gravity well, but from here it looks like it’s frozen in place. It’s not geosynchronous!”</p><p>“Yeah, I did notice that,” Jack deadpanned.</p><p>“Don’t you see, sir?” Carter exclaimed and pointed at the viewer. “It should be falling into Jupiter, but instead it’s locked in low orbit so it can use Jupiter’s rotation as a dynamo to generate power! And consider its placement: I bet it’s harnessing the planet’s magnetic field to generate power as well!”</p><p>Jack noticed when the Borg turned their attention away from the control panel and ‘look’ at Carter. For a moment he thought her outburst drew their attention, but the way they kept their focus on the Captain was alarming. </p><p>From the moment the Borg showed up they expressed little interest in his team. They were clearly way more into the Ha’tak. Now, suddenly, Carter held their undivided attention, and it made Jack nervous.</p><p>Carter took a few steps closer to the viewer, and the Borg, before Jack could stop her.</p><p>“Those oblong shaped sections… They’re energy collectors! The base must be generating more energy than what’s needed to power its anti-gravity technology, and other systems, and it’s shunting the rest to those collectors! Considering their size, their storage capacity must be extraordinarily high!”</p><p>“Carter, why don’t you come back over here,” Jack said while his eyes flicked nervously between the Borg and Carter.</p><p>Even though Jack couldn’t see their eyes, he could tell the Borgs interest in Carter grew sharper the more she geeked out over their base.</p><p>“Sir, this is amazing,” Carter said. “These people devised a way to generate unlimited, self-sustaining energy!”</p><p>“Would you like to learn all there is to know about our technology, Captain Carter? How it all works?” Nine of Nine asked in a casual, easy-going manner, which immediately made Jack think the Borg was about to pull a fast one.</p><p>“Well, of course—”</p><p>“Not!” Jack broke in just before he grabbed the collar of Carter’s tactical vest and pulled her back to the rest of the team.</p><p>“Sir?” Carter gave Jack a confused and affronted look.</p><p>“Carter, I think Nine of Nine just offered to assimilate you.”</p><p>It was a few moments before Jack’s words sunk in, and when they did Carter turned a shocked stare at Nine of Nine.</p><p>“Oh! Oh, no! I mean… No! Thank you, but… No!”</p><p>Jack saw Nine of Nine’s narrow chest swell then deflate, like they’d sighed.</p><p>“Too bad.”</p><p>The white cube stopped but the Ha’tak kept moving towards the base. Then an opening appeared. Inside, Jack saw what looked like to him a wide cavernous space. But it wasn’t dark, and it wasn’t empty, either. There were docking platforms, walkways, and enormous cables as wide as a city bus reaching towards the Ha’tak as it entered the bay.</p><p>Before the ship was completely yanked into the base Jack blinked then saw he wasn’t on the bridge of the Ha’tak anymore. He stood somewhere that looked exactly like Ten Forward, only it was ten times bigger. </p><p>It had Guinan’s bar, about fifty or so of Ten Forward’s glow-y tables, and the plush IKEA looking seats to go with them. Three food replicators lined every wall, except the one behind the bar. The only things missing that would have made the room a perfect replica of Enterprise D’s Ten Forward, were a wall of windows, and Ten Forward’s usually dark lighting. This version was way too brightly lit. </p><p>“What the…”</p><p>Jack looked at each member of his team, and they all looked as confused as he felt. Even the unflappable Teal’c looked around with an uneasy glower.</p><p>“Son of a bitch!” Jack shouted when noticed Klorel missing.</p><p>“Colonel?”</p><p>“They took Klorel!”</p><p>“And I notice the Borg from the ship are also not with us,” Teal’c said. “Have we been taken as prisoners?”</p><p>“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Daniel said. “I mean look around. I doubt this place is meant to be a prison.”</p><p>Daniel had a point, but Jack had no intention of sticking around either way. Jack glanced around until he located doors.</p><p>“C’mon,” Jack said.</p><p>He stalked over to what he sincerely hoped were automatic sliding doors.</p><p>He wasn’t disappointed. With a familiar whoosh, the doors opened into a brightly lit concentric corridor identical to the ones on Star Trek the Next Generation: from its bulkheads, the corridor panels, right down to its blue carpeting. Burgundy colored doors, that presumably led to other rooms, lined the long corridor every ten feet or so in both directions until the corridor broke into junctions that went left, right, and center.</p><p>“Most strange,” Teal’c said. “This does not appear to be a typical Borg interior.”</p><p>“It looks like something you’d see on a Federation ship,” Jack agreed.</p><p>They left Ten Forward and walked until Jack recognized the doors to a turbolift and he went up to it. The lift’s doors opened automatically and they all clamored inside. Once the doors whooshed shut, Jack took a breath and said, “Bridge” half expecting the command not to work.</p><p>The lift began to do… something. There was no sensation of movement, but the familiar sounds and sights of floors flashing by behind the lift’s walls was present. Thirty seconds later the lift opened onto what definitely did not look like the bridge of a Starfleet ship.</p><p>The bridge, if that’s what it was, had Borg standing in twelve of twenty four alcoves that lined the walls of the oval shaped room. It didn’t have a carpet, and the shiny, black floor under Jack’s feet felt and sounded like metal. The ceiling was covered in panel lighting. </p><p>At the center of the bridge was a solid block of gleaming black material three feet high and five feet long. It had no visible buttons, switches, or monitors.</p><p>“Wait a minute,” Jack said.</p><p>He walked up to the block and touched its cool, smooth surface. It lit up the moment Jack’s finger made contact and displayed a touch-sensitive button scheme. The LCARS display was arranged differently than the button layouts on the Enterprise D and Voyager, but was clearly inspired by them. Each button had Okudagrams labels in English, but Jack still didn’t understand what any of them did. He’d have to get Carter on it.</p><p>“Sir, in front of you,” Carter said.</p><p> Jack looked up from the panel and saw a highly detailed holographic screen had popped up a foot or so in front of him. It showed the two Ha’taks being broken down with cutting beams. The bus sized tentacles Jack saw in the docking bay earlier took the segmented pieces and seemed to liquefy and absorb them.</p><p>“That’s more like it,” Jack said under his breath.</p><p><i>Finally, these Borg are acting like Borg</i>!</p><p>“So, what now?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“First, Carter, you figure out how to access this thing’s hard drive or whatever.”</p><p>“I doubt it has one, sir.”</p><p>“Carter.”</p><p>“On it!”</p><p>Carter eagerly took Jack’s place at the panel and began looking it over. Jack sauntered over to one of the alcoves with a Borg in it.</p><p>“The Borg here look different than the ones on Klorel’s ship,” Daniel said. “They look more… Human.”</p><p>“I agree, Daniel Jackson.”</p><p>Jack grunted.</p><p> The Borg on the bridge did look different from Seven of Nine and Nine of Nine. For one, these weren’t wearing a helmet. They didn’t look like TV Borg, either. The sleeping drone in front of Jack had a blonde pixie cut, a healthy pink complexion, and a figure. Her black body armor was similar to Seven and Nine’s, but it lacked the jerkin part of the design. </p><p> Jack went around the bridge and inspected each Borg. He concluded all of them looked young. Suspiciously young. Some of them couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old.</p><p>“Sir, I think I found something interesting here,” Carter called out.</p><p>Jack, Teal’c and Daniel joined Carter back at the panel.</p><p>“What’s up?”</p><p>“I think I gained access to their communications and long range scanners. Sir, their scanners are capable detecting objects light years away!”</p><p>“Light years, you say?”</p><p>“Yes, sir! I was even able to—”</p><p>“Captain? Is possible to contact the SGC with this thing?”</p><p>Carter’s mouth clamped shut before she nodded and pressed several buttons on the panel.</p><p>“You’re connected now, sir,” Carter said.</p><p>“Thank you, Captain. This is Colonel Jack O’Neill to Stargate Command, come in.”</p><p>“Colonel O’Neill?” General Hammond’s voice came through crystal clear, though Jack had no idea where from.</p><p>“Yes, sir.”</p><p>“Where are you and your team?”</p><p>“Jupiter, sir.”</p><p>There was a lengthy pause before General Hammond came back.</p><p>“Do you know what in God’s name is happening up there, Colonel? Because we’re seeing things down here that don’t make a whole lot of sense!”</p><p>“Right there with you, General.”</p><p>“Well?”</p><p>“Well, for one, the Goa’uld got sent packing,” Jack said.</p><p>“Is that so? Then why haven’t we detected their ships leaving the solar system?”</p><p>Jack looked to each of his team members and seriously considered pawning off telling the General about the Borg to one of them.</p><p>“Well, sir, about that. Seems like, ah, another… faction has taken possession of the Goa’uld ships.”</p><p>“Who?”</p><p>Jack winced and looked down at the floor for a moment before he answered.</p><p>“The Borg.”</p><p>“The who?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Read In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Jack and Daniel take a look around, find cool new toys, and come to a startling conclusion.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Jack explained to General Hammond what a Borg was, and told him how they whupped the Goa’uld and hijacked their ships with frightening ease, he knew what he said was outlandish at best. Pure insanity at worst. An overwhelmingly powerful alien force coming from nowhere to save the Earth from certain destruction? It was the definition of Deus ex Machina—almost literally. Jack wouldn’t at all be surprised after his court martial went through, a long stay in padded cell would soon follow.</p><p>“Just to be clear,” General Hammond said, “these Borg aliens from Star Trek have a space station orbiting Jupiter, and you and your team are currently on said station? Is that right?”</p><p>“That’s right, sir,” Jack said.</p><p>“If this is another one of your jokes, Colonel, I’m not laughing.”</p><p>“I assure you, General, this is no joke. The Borg, or some version of them, are real and they pretty much just saved all our asses. Sir.”</p><p>General Hammond went quiet, and Jack looked to each member of his team. Carter gave him a reassuring nod and Daniel shrugged. Teal’c lifted an eyebrow but was otherwise stone-faced.</p><p>“Fine,” General Hammond finally said. “What’s the current situation there?”</p><p>Jack suppressed a sigh of relief before he replied, “Right now me and the rest of SG-1 are on the bridge of the Borg’s space station.”</p><p>“And the... Borg?”</p><p>“Assimilating the Goa’uld and their ships.” Jack looked at the Borg inside the alcoves lining the bridge. “And regenerating. I think.”</p><p>“Are these Borg any threat to Earth?” Hammond asked.</p><p>“I’m not sure, but at first blush I’d say they’re not an immediate threat. They might even be potential allies.”</p><p>“Alright, Colonel, learn whatever else you can about them and find out if they’re willing to help us against the Goa’uld. Then you and your team find a way back to Earth. Hammond out.”</p><p>“Yes, sir,” Jack said. “Where I’m sure medals and cake are waiting for us, and not courts martial,” he muttered after General Hammond cut the connection.</p><p>“All right,” Jack said, “looks like we’re going to have a look around.”</p><p>“Sir, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a closer look at the information I found on this console,” Carter said.</p><p>“Knock yourself out. See if you can get the Borg’s attention while you’re at it. They promised us an explanation. Teal’c, you watch her back. Me and Daniel will go check out the rest of the station.”</p><p>When Jack and Daniel got into the turbolift Jack thought about where he wanted to go first. After a moment he called out, “Cargo Bay…3.”</p><p>This place had to have at least that many cargo bays, Jack thought.</p><p>“A cargo bay? Why there? Shouldn’t we go to the engine room to see what powers this thing?”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m sure Engineering is worth a look,” Jack said then held up his zat gun. “But aliens keep all their cool stuff in cargo bays.”</p><p>As the lift carried them to their destination Daniel said, “You know, I thought today was going to go much differently.”</p><p>“Copy that.”</p><p> </p><p>Before his call to the president, General George Hammond prepared himself for the very real possibility of losing his command. One does not call the President of the United States and tell him cyborgs from a television show that aired some thirty odd years ago, were real. But after his call to the president ended, George was left feeling stunned, confused, and so uneasy, that getting fired would have been less upsetting.</p><p>After Colonel O'Neill's outrageous tale of TV space aliens fighting off the Goa’uld, George thought the man had lost his mind. As much as he’d come to trust and rely on the members of SG-1, George nevertheless found himself wondering if Jack made up the Borg. There were courts martial waiting for him and Captain Carter when they returned, so it was possible O’Neill might be feeling desperate enough to concoct some off the wall story to avoid a dishonorable discharge. </p><p>Still, George couldn’t bring himself to believe a member of SG-1, or any soldier under his command, would lie to avoid the consequences of their actions.</p><p>When George called the president to inform him of Colonel O’Neill’s report, Borg and all, to his utter amazement the president’s first question wasn’t who or what are the Borg, but how many SGC personnel heard O’Neill mention them. When George said just the ten men and women stationed in the Stargate Operations room, himself, and Colonel Samuels, the president requested a list of their names and ordered George to make it clear they were not to discuss the Borg with anyone else, including each other.</p><p>“Is that going to be a problem, General?”</p><p>“No, Mister President.”</p><p>The whole base was on high alert and the officers in Operations had been on round the clock duty since the Goa’uld and Borg ships showed up. They barely had time for restroom breaks let alone gossip.</p><p>“I also want no mention of the Borg in any official reports or communications, General,” the president said. “All information pertaining to them is classified beyond top secret. Am I understood?”</p><p>“Yes, sir.”</p><p>“If SG-1 contacts you again make sure you’re the only person in the room who talks to them.”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>“Good.” </p><p>“Sir, is it possible for me to get read in on any information you may have available on the Borg?”</p><p>“Keep me informed, General,” the president said without pausing to consider George’s request.</p><p>After the call ended, George sat in his office quietly and blinked at the wall.</p><p>
  <i>The Borg are real, and the president knew they were real before today. But how? And for how long?</i>
</p><p>“What in God’s name is going on?”</p><p>George called in the officers on duty in Operations when Colonel O’Neill contacted the SGC, including Samuels, and informed them of their new orders. Then he returned to Command and waited for SG-1 to report in again.</p><p> </p><p>“This is not a cargo bay,” Jack said. “This is heaven!”</p><p>The cavernous room they entered was a near-exact replica of cargo bays found on Federation starships, only this version by far out-sized of any of those. Three stories up was an observation deck accessible by a staircase and lift. The bay had a large transporter platform positioned near the entrance, and an industrial replicator underneath the observation deck. And then there was what really had Jack jazzed: the cargo.</p><p>Twelve hexagonal shaped craft were neatly lined up in two symmetrical rows of six on one side of the bay, and eighteen suits of armor stood similarly on the other. And, finally, six gray cargo containers of varying sizes sat by the wall opposite the observation deck.  </p><p>The craft were ten meters in length and seven meters high. They had a solid black color that reminded Jack of the stealth coating on an SR-71. Their cock-pit windows had been copied from the Delta Flyer right down to its intricate decal design. The ships rested on three two meter long landing struts under each point of the bottom vertex, which were identical to the landing feet on Voyager.</p><p>Right away Jack knew he wanted to fly one if he ever got the chance.</p><p>The armored suits closely resembled the get-ups worn by Seven and Nine of Nine, only bigger. At first Jack didn’t get why the suits were so big. They had to be over ten feet tall and five feet wide. Unless the Collective had giant Borg Jack hadn’t seen yet, the armor didn’t make sense. </p><p>Then it hit him.</p><p>“Power armor!” Jack said. “They have power armor!”</p><p>“Are you sure they’re not just robots?” Daniel asked.</p><p>“That’d be almost as neat,” Jack said.</p><p>“You have an odd definition of neat.”</p><p>Jack walked closer to the power armor and reach out his hand.</p><p>“Careful, Jack.”</p><p>The armor’s plating felt like titanium, but was most likely made of some other kind exotic alloy or polymer—maybe both—because the material was cool to the touch and didn’t seem to absorb the warmth from Jack’s hand. It remained cold, almost uncomfortably so. Jack also looked for rivets or joints to figure out the mechanics of how the suit was put together and how it moved, but it was impossibly seamless like the Borg’s body armor.</p><p>“Jack, come check these out,” Daniel called out.</p><p>Jack reluctantly abandoned the armor and joined Daniel over by the cargo crates. </p><p>Daniel already had a couple of them open.</p><p>“Holy crap!” Jack exclaimed when recognized what was in one of the crates.</p><p>“You know what these are?”</p><p>“You bet. They’re tricoders."</p><p>Three dozen of them were neatly packed in the cargo container.</p><p>When he saw the 'That doesn't explain anything' look on Daniel's face, Jack said, "Fancy scanning devices.”</p><p>A dozen medkits filled the other container.</p><p>“Let’s grab a couple,” Jack said.</p><p>“Do you think it’s such a good idea to steal from these Borg?” Daniel asked. “Especially when they can teleport us into vacuum of space?”</p><p>“You worry too much,” Jack said as he pulled out one of the medkits. “If they didn’t want us nosing around, they would’ve kept the doors locked.”</p><p>“Exploring their base is a lot different than rummaging around and looting all their stuff,” Daniel said.</p><p>When Jack opened the kit, he found a medical tricoder, a hypospray, and three rows of six vials tucked inside protective sleeves. Jack closed the case and turned to Daniel.</p><p>“Got an empty pocket I can use?”</p><p>“Jack.”</p><p>“C’mon, Daniel.”</p><p>With an exasperated sigh Daniel took the medkit and tucked it into one of the inner pockets of his flak jacket. Jack grabbed a standard tricorder and placed it inside an empty ammo pouch on his jacket.</p><p>“Let’s see what else we find inside the rest of these crates.”</p><p>They went through all the containers. In one they found plasma torches, in another two types of armbands with a small rectangular device attached to them. Something about the bands tickled a memory in Jack’s brain, but he couldn’t recall what they were used for exactly. He took one of each—he could look them up later.</p><p>Several of the crates carried hyperspanners, sonic drivers, and other engineering tools.</p><p>Finally, they came across three crates packed with phasers weapons. Two carried type-1 and type-2 hand-held phasers, respectively, and a third larger crate held eight phaser rifles. Jack and Daniel each pocketed a type-1 and type-2 phaser.</p><p>“Okay, let’s go,” Jack said.</p><p>“Where to?”</p><p>“Engineering. Might as well see how this thing runs.”</p><p>“Before we do that, can we check out some of the rooms we passed on our way here?”</p><p>“Sure. Why?”</p><p>“Well, something about this place…” Daniel said.</p><p>“What about it?”</p><p>“I’m not sure,” Daniel said slowly, which caught Jack’s attention. Daniel usually talked like he was giving a timed presentation and he had three seconds left to make his point. “But I’ll let you know when I am.”</p><p>Jack shrugged, and the pair exited the cargo bay. </p><p> There were no other compartments nearby, so they had to walk a ways before they located another room. The door swooshed opened and they went inside. The immediate area looked like a living room. It was furnished with a large sofa, two lounge chairs, and a coffee table.</p><p>Jack and Daniel separately circuited through the quarters and found a room with a bed and nightstand, a bathroom outfitted with a sonic shower, and a kitchen nook with a replicator embedded in the wall.</p><p>The last area Jack went through was an office space. A medium-sized workstation sat in the middle of the room, on top of it was a compact version of the glossy black terminal found on the bridge. In front of the desk was a plush, rotating and reclining chair bolted to the floor.</p><p>They went through several more crew quarters. All of them more or less had the same layout, though some were more spacious than others.</p><p>“Jack,” Daniel said when they finished inspecting the crew quarters, “I think I know what this place is meant to be.”</p><p> </p><p>Their next stop was Engineering, or at least what passed for Engineering on the Borg’s space station.</p><p> The overall look of the operational section closely resembled the engineering decks found on The Next Generation and Voyager. The access ports to the Jefferies tubes, lifts, and the wall interfaces were the same, but the ubiquitous master systems display table that usually sat at the heart of operations had been replaced with a waist high, coffin-sized version of the black terminals on the bridge and in all the crew quarters. </p><p>Why, wondered Jack, did the Borg go through all the trouble of duplicating so many interiors from Star Trek, some down to the last detail, but change most of the computer interfaces? </p><p> Then there was the ‘warp core’ section. Normally the warp engines on Starfleet vessels spanned two or three stories, but the section that contained the station’s power source was at least as tall and wide as a mid-sized office building. It needed to be to fit the giant, shimmering, neon green orb hovering in front of them. </p><p>The orb was the size of Epcot’s geodesic sphere, and it floated; suspended between two pulsating green rings half as wide as itself—one on the ceiling high above and the other on the floor far below. </p><p>The sphere gave off no warmth, at least no heat radiating from it reached the walkway Jack and Daniel stood on that wound around the area housing the sphere. And unlike the rhythmic humming that emanated constantly from warp cores on modern Trek shows, the gleaming ball made no sound.</p><p>“You know what I think?” Daniel asked as he clutched the walkway’s chest high safety railing and stared up at the enormous orb.</p><p>“I should have brought Carter,” Jack replied.</p><p>“You should have brought Carter.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. All Tricks, No Treats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The New Collective begin talks to form an alliance with the SGC.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jack and Daniel arrived at their last stop: a holodeck.</p>
<p>Jack pessimistically expected it not to work as seen on TV, because he really wanted to experience a working holodeck and the world just loved to disappoint him.</p>
<p>Jack’s heart was pounding when the doors in the holodeck’s arch slid open and revealed its black and yellow grid interior. Jack examined the panel inside the arch and saw where he was supposed to slot in a program chip, or input his desired parameters. Lacking one and not knowing how to do the other, Jack simply called out to the computer. </p>
<p>“Computer,” Jack said, “show us a beach in Hawaii.”</p>
<p>There was a soft chirping tone and the black and yellow grid changed into a bright, sandy beach with a gently churning shoreline. The beach sat in a cove framed by two high rocky cliffs. The water near the shore was sea-green and crystal clear, but further out the ocean turned a deep blue. Seagulls glided high over the deep blue sea, as dolphins broke the surface and leaped and flipped into the air before splashing into the water. </p>
<p>Jack turned his face up and felt the warm sun on his face and smelled the ocean on a gentle breeze.</p>
<p>“This is… This is…” Daniel’s voice was filled with awe as he twirled around in a circle and took in their tropical surroundings.</p>
<p>Jack knelt and scooped up a hand full of sand. It felt cool and grainy as he let it slip through his fingers.</p>
<p>“Computer, are safety protocols working?”</p>
<p>“Affirmative. Safety protocols are in full effect,” the computer replied.</p>
<p>Jack looked up in surprise when he heard the computer respond using Majel Barrett-Roddenberry’s voice.</p>
<p>“Computer, put us on the summit of Mount Everest.”</p>
<p>The environment changed again while Jack was still crouched. One moment his boots were buried in sand, the next he was ankle deep in gleaming white snow. Everest’s summit overlooked the vast mist shrouded mountain ranges that formed the Himalayas. In the distance the curvature of the Earth was visible and awe-inspiring. The sun on the Hawaiian beach had been a perfect soft, yellow, the sun that shined over the summit was a stark, blinding white and looked as close to the Earth as the moon in perigee. </p>
<p>In these surroundings the illusion of reality was shattered. The summit should have been freezing, and the air almost too thin to breathe. Instead, the temperature was hardly cooler than an early morning in Colorado in the Fall, and breathing in the crisp air was effortless.</p>
<p>Jack pick up some snow and held it in the his palm until it began to melt. He flung the snow back to the ground then rubbed his fingers against his now wet palm.</p>
<p>“This is amazing!” Daniel exclaimed. “A fully interactive artificial environment! Even the Goa’uld don’t have this kind of technology!”</p>
<p>“But why do the Borg? They don’t need it,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Huh?”</p>
<p>“I think your theory is right,” Jack replied as he stood. “Come on, let’s get back to Teal’c and Carter.</p>
<p>“Computer, end program.”</p>
<p>Mount Everest disappeared and they were standing in the middle of the holodeck’s empty grid interior once again.</p>
<p>The only evidence Jack stood on top of Everest moments ago was the wetness on his hand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the turbolift’s doors opened onto the bridge Jack saw two Borg holding what looked like a very tense conversation with Carter and Teal’c. While Carter did all the talking, Teal’c stood next to her and looked royally pissed.</p>
<p>“What’s going on?” Jack asked as he and Daniel walked onto the bridge.</p>
<p>“Sir, the Borg assimilated every Jaffa aboard Apophis and Klorel’s ships.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, we kinda figured they would,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Including Master Bra’tac,” Teal’c rumbled.</p>
<p>“What?” Jack exclaimed.</p>
<p>“Whoa,” said Daniel.</p>
<p>“We will return the Jaffa no longer loyal to Apophis and his son, including Bra’tac,” one of the Borg said.</p>
<p>The Borg who promised to free Bra’tac was male. He had short dark brown hair, pale skin, and average features that were neither handsome or plain. The only part of his youthful face that showed any emotion were his sharp, dark brown eyes. Everything else about it was still as the grave. He was lean, but not in the androgynous way Seven and Nine of Nine were. He was also short; shorter than his Borg companion and every one else on the bridge, including the Borg in the alcoves.</p>
<p>The other Borg was a woman. A bit shorter than Carter, the Borg looked ten to fifteen years older than the any of the mask-less Borg Jack had seen so far. Her brown complexion made Jack think she was of middle-eastern descent, but she easily could have been Mediterranean or Eurasian. She had long dark hair plaited into a single ponytail that reached her lower back. Her dark eyes were just as piercing as her companion’s. She was conventionally attractive, but the blank expression on her face was off-putting, and a little creepy.</p>
<p>Both were clad in the same armor the Borg in the alcoves wore.</p>
<p>“I wish to speak to Bra’tac. Now.”</p>
<p>The female Borg held up her hands and said, “That can be arranged, but first, now that Colonel O’Neill and Dr. Jackson are here, there are issues we must discuss.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah,” Jack said once he and Daniel rejoined their teammates and stood before the pair of Borg. “What about?”</p>
<p>The shorter Borg looked at Jack and Jack thought he could almost see a smile form on the Borg’s thin lips. </p>
<p>“Unsurprisingly, your team has reasoned through most of it.”</p>
<p>“Colonel,” Carter said, “while I was going through the database I found detailed instructions on how to operate all the systems on the station in every language I’ve ever heard of, and some I haven’t. The computer interface even has ASL and braille options. The station also has Earth-like environments, like parks, forest areas, and lakes…</p>
<p>“Sir, this station was made for human habitation,” Carter concluded.</p>
<p>“Yeah, me and Daniel came to the same conclusion,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“How?” Carter asked.</p>
<p>“Well, despite never watching Star Wars—”</p>
<p>“Star Trek,” Jack and the two Borg said.</p>
<p>“Right. Star Trek. I noticed areas of the station we visited emphasized comfort and, going by Jack’s reactions, familiarity. Why would the Borg design their base, one they don’t seem to live in, to—”</p>
<p>“What makes you think we don’t live in the Unicomplex?” the female Borg interrupted.</p>
<p>“Well, the living quarters for one. There are zero signs of anyone ever lived in them.”</p>
<p>“Maybe no one has claimed them yet.”</p>
<p>“Maybe,” Daniel conceded. “But don’t you need those alcoves to sustain yourselves?” Daniel said, pointing at the Borg in the alcoves on the bridge. “Why didn’t we find any in the living quarters?”</p>
<p>“And then there’s the holodeck,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“What about it?” The male Borg said.</p>
<p>“You don’t need them. Anything a holodeck can do the simulations you guys create in your heads can do better,” Jack replied.</p>
<p>Jack aimed a hard glare at the Borg in front of him. He was more convinced than ever they were being played by the Borg. He’d suspected it ever since they beamed them onboard the station and left them to roam “unsupervised”.</p>
<p>“Is there something on your mind, Colonel?” asked the male Borg.</p>
<p>“What are your designations?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“I am Three of Six,” the female Borg said. “He is One of One.”</p>
<p>“You’ve been watching us this whole time.” Jack didn’t phrase it as a question.</p>
<p>“Of course,” One of One said. “We see everything.”</p>
<p><i>Thought as much</i>.</p>
<p>“Then you know we helped ourselves to some of your tech.”</p>
<p>“If you like, we can transport the rest to the SGC when we send you back,” Three of Six said.</p>
<p><i>Oh. So that’s the deal</i>. </p>
<p>At the time Jack thought the Borg’s inattentiveness was their usual behavior of ignoring people until the Borg perceived them to be a threat. He thought him and Daniel stuffing their pockets with stolen goods would spark some kind of reaction, but the Borg had left their tech laying around like complementary mints. </p>
<p><i>Or something meant to whet our appetite</i>?</p>
<p>“Including the fighters and power suits?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>One of One let out a very human sounding chuckle.</p>
<p>“No,” One replied.</p>
<p>The Borg were definitely whetting their appetites, Jack concluded. Which made him realize the Borg wanted something from them. The fighters and power armor were future bargaining chips.</p>
<p>Except, what could a race of super advanced cyborgs aliens want from them? It had to be something so ethereal, the Borg couldn’t replicate it, or take it by force.</p>
<p>“However, we can provide information on how to operate and maintain the other equipment should you accept them,” said Three of Six.</p>
<p>“And what will your generous largess cost us?” Daniel asked.</p>
<p>The cynicism coloring Daniel’s question made Jack think there was hope for him after all.</p>
<p>“Nothing,” One of One said.</p>
<p>“Not buying it,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“No reason you should, really,” Three of Six replied. She paused before going on to say, “However, the phasers and tricorders are trivial to us.”</p>
<p>“Giving them to you would be like you giving away a stick of gum,” One added.</p>
<p>Even though Jack already guessed as much, the arrogant way One put it made Jack frown. Though the Borg’s modulated tone of voice was emotionless, it was hard to tell if he was being braggy or just stating a fact. Probably a little of both, Jack thought.</p>
<p>“Maybe so, but we know very little about you. If you want to build some kind of relationship with us—with humanity—then you need to explain what your ultimate goals are,” Daniel said.</p>
<p>“And release Master Bra’tac,” Teal’c added.</p>
<p>Daniel nodded. “Right. And free Bra’tac.”</p>
<p>“We don’t want a relationship with you,” proclaimed a disembodied voice.</p>
<p>“Xander, please let us handle—” Six began but was interrupted by the phantom speaker.</p>
<p>“No, we’ve been accommodating enough. We saved their bacon and their eggs today. They should be thanking us!”</p>
<p>On the surface the disembodied voice was bleached of emotion and personality, yet its owner managed to make their obnoxiousness come through loud and clear. </p>
<p>“Excuse me,” Daniel said, his eyes searching the empty air over his head, “who is speaking?”</p>
<p>“My friends call me Xander, but you guys can call me Borg King.”</p>
<p>“Borg King? That’ll be the day,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“See? I told you this guy is a jerk!” the disembodied voice said. “We should show him and his team the door, and let it hit ‘em on the ass on their way out.”</p>
<p>“Who is this jack-ass?” Jack asked One and Three.</p>
<p>“He’s our leader,” replied One.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I know what a “Borg King” is,” Jack said, “but who was he before? He sounds like some brat kid to me. In fact, One of One, you look like a kid, too.”</p>
<p>“We will explain after we’ve come to an agreement.,” Three said,</p>
<p>Jack rolled his eyes. “Oh, here we go.”</p>
<p>“Wow.”</p>
<p>“Listen here, Borg brat—” Jack started as he glared upwards.</p>
<p>“Colonel O’Neill, please ignore Xander for now,” Three of Six said, her evenly modulated voice betraying a hint of exasperation.</p>
<p>“Fine, what’s the deal?”</p>
<p>“If you accept the equipment or not, all we ask of you are two things,” One of One said.</p>
<p>“Which are?” Daniel said.</p>
<p>“The NID,” Three replied.</p>
<p>“The National Intelligence Department?” Carter said.</p>
<p>“You need to be aware of the threat they pose. The NID and their allies in congress, namely Senator Kinsey, are working to undermine, and ultimately, end your Stargate program by any means necessary.”</p>
<p>“What are you talking about?” Jack asked incredulously, but he was already half-way buying the Borg’s story—the Kinsey part, anyway. </p>
<p>Something never sat right with Jack about how fervently the senator wanted the SGC shut down. Or how sure he was the United States could defend itself against the Goa’uld. At one point, the guy even claimed God would save them. At the time Jack thought Kinsey was an evangelical loon, but if what the Borg claimed was true, the Senator was playing a very dangerous game.</p>
<p>“They started their own clandestine Stargate operations using the Stargate found in Antarctica,” One said.</p>
<p>Jack and Carter exchanged looks.</p>
<p>Jack returned his attention to the Borg. “Go on.”</p>
<p>“From what we’ve discovered, the NID has been, at the very least, influenced by an organization called the Trust. And when it comes to Stargate use on Earth, they want to be the only game in town.”</p>
<p>“That sounds a little too spy thriller to me,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“But it’s true,” One said. “The Trust is run by ex-NID agents and political figures who believe the SGC are—”</p>
<p>“A bunch of pansies,” Xander chimed in.</p>
<p>Three directed a withering look at the air before she said, “It’s more accurate to say the rogue faction within the NID finds your progress slow and less than satisfactory when it comes to gaining advanced technology to defend Earth from alien aggressors.”</p>
<p>“You have any proof what you’re saying is true?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Most of what we learned about the NID came from within the NID itself, as well as several other factions it’s allied with,” said Three.</p>
<p>“How’d you manage that?”</p>
<p>When the Borg didn’t answer right away Jack smiled.</p>
<p>“Wasn’t legal, was it?”</p>
<p>When the Borg still didn’t respond the final piece to the puzzle Jack needed fell into place.</p>
<p>“You hacked into the SGC, too, didn’t you?”</p>
<p>More silence.</p>
<p>“I don’t know about anybody else here, but I am just full to bursting with trust for you guys right now!” Jack said with exaggerated exuberance.</p>
<p>“Says the guy stealing our goods like a total klepto,” Xander said snidely.</p>
<p>“You stole a whole person from us!” Jack said. “Remember Klorel? Hmm? He was our prisoner first, and we want him back!”</p>
<p>“We did you a favor, soldier boy! In fact—”</p>
<p>“Colonel O’Neill,” Three cut in before Xander and Jack’s arguing could escalate. “We understand nothing we’ve told you can be used in any official sense, but we hope our information will help you fight the NID’s efforts to shut you down in the future.”</p>
<p>“Why do you care what happens to the SGC?” Daniel asked.</p>
<p>“Because,” Three said, “what your Stargate program represents closely aligns with Borg ideology.”</p>
<p>“And that is?”</p>
<p>“To learn. To grow beyond what we are and once were.”</p>
<p>Yeah, but grow into what? Jack thought.</p>
<p>“Which was… Human?” Daniel asked.</p>
<p>One and Three nodded in unison.</p>
<p>“How did you go from being human to Borg?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>The Borg looked at each other for a moment before they returned their attention to SG-1.</p>
<p>“Magic,” One said.</p>
<p>“Come again?” Jack said.</p>
<p>“We came into being after our progenitor was magically transformed into a Borg.”</p>
<p>Jack exchanged looks with his team before he looked back at One and Three with an arched eyebrow. </p>
<p>“Uh-huh.”</p>
<p>“It is the truth,” One insisted.</p>
<p>“How does this magic work?” Carter asked.</p>
<p>“To our limited understanding magic appears to be an exotic form of sub-spacial energy. It’s powered by a source we call Particle 10. Humans who can access magical energy psionically, through natural ability or practiced skill, are able to manipulate it virtually at will. They can also call upon the aid of higher beings recognized as deities to wield magical power normally beyond their abilities. Such was the case of the warlock that cast the spell that turned our progenitor into the first Borg.”</p>
<p>“You mean like Q?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>Three looked at Jack, and for a split second her eyes widened before her expression went flat again.</p>
<p>“That’s… We… We don’t think so. Not unless Q listens to prayers.”</p>
<p>Jack grimaced at the thought. She had a point. The Q Jack was familiar with was more likely to grant the opposite of whatever someone prayed for—just for a laugh.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying,” Carter said. “Are you implying magic created the technology the made you what you are?”</p>
<p>“Not directly. Magic appears to operate within the basic physical laws of nature. It cannot create something from nothing.”</p>
<p>“It obeys the Law of Conservation.”</p>
<p>“Correct. Our strongest theory is the spell didn’t conjure a Borg into being, it bent reality to create an accurate facsimile. The facsimile was then able to produce technological copies of its nanoprobes capable of functioning without magic, and operate within the fundamental principles of this reality’s physical laws.”</p>
<p>Jack could see from the look on Carter’s face her mind was churning as she processed what the Borg told them.</p>
<p>“If magic is just an exotic way to transform energy into complex matter,” Carter said, "then theoretically it’s possible… But…”</p>
<p>Not this again, Jack thought when he saw the two Borg focus all their attention on Carter. Their eyes practically sparkling. Three was even smiling.</p>
<p>“Yes,” One said. “There’s an underlying component to magic we’re missing. Some catalyst, or spark, we’re unable to quantify.</p>
<p>“How does fire burn? Oxygen. Heat. Fuel. When it comes to magic we’ve identified the oxygen and the fuel, but we have no idea where the heat comes from, or how it interacts with the other two.”</p>
<p>“If what you’re telling us is true, then it could alter how we observe and interact with our universe,” Carter said.</p>
<p>“If. If it’s true,” Jack chimed in to bring the conversation back to Earth.</p>
<p>“When the time comes, Colonel O’Neill, we’ll prove it to you,” said Three.</p>
<p>“Why not prove it to us now?” Daniel asked before Jack could.</p>
<p>“Tell me, Colonel,” One said, “if we showed you irrefutable proof witches, vampires, and demons are as real as the brick of C4 in one of Daniel Jackson’s pockets, what would you do?”</p>
<p>While Daniel nervously uh’d and ah’d, Jack answered One’s question.</p>
<p>“I’d wonder what you dosed me with to convince me any of that bull is real.”</p>
<p>“Humor us. What would you do?”</p>
<p>“Well, first thing I’d do is go see a priest. The second thing I would do is find out how big a threat they are.”</p>
<p>“Oh, most of them are a threat all right. And then?”</p>
<p>“Then, I’d tell anyone who’d listen to start carvin’ up wooden stakes.”</p>
<p>“You’d tell your superiors? Your government?”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>“And that’s why we can’t show you the proof now,” One said. “Because there are those in your government who already know the supernatural is real, and they very much don’t want it to get out. There are no lines they wouldn’t cross to keep it secret.”</p>
<p>“Well, when will be the right time?” Daniel asked.</p>
<p>“When knowing it won’t put you or the SGC in harms way.”</p>
<p>“What’s the other thing you want from us?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“An alliance,” said Three.</p>
<p>Jack carefully kept his expression neutral before he replied.</p>
<p>“Sounds great. Let’s make it happen. I call your people? You call my people?”</p>
<p>“Naturally much negotiation needs to happen before we can form such an alliance,” One said. “Both sides need to cultivate trust.”</p>
<p>“I agree,” Jack said. Then he tilted his head in Daniel’s direction and said, “And just to clear the air, I want to apologize for Daniel stealing your stuff in the cargo bay. He gets very excited sometimes.”</p>
<p>Jack suppressed a grin when he saw Daniel close his eyes and sigh.</p>
<p>“No worries, Colonel. We intended to gift you the equipment from the start,” Three said.</p>
<p>
  <i>But you should be a little miffed. Why aren’t you?</i>
</p>
<p>“When the time comes, after our alliance is secure, we will give you free access to Unicomplex 1, and all that resides within it.”</p>
<p>“Including the big kids’ stuff?”</p>
<p>“Absolutely,” One assured.</p>
<p>“And how do we stay in touch with you guys?”</p>
<p>“Hold out your hand,” One said.</p>
<p>Jack raised his hand and a moment later a gold, oval shaped com badge appeared in his palm. The Stargate symbol for Earth was etched into it.</p>
<p>“Cute,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Then we can count on you to help defend Earth from the Goa’uld?” Daniel asked.</p>
<p>“Of course,” Three said. “We may not be totally human anymore, but Earth is still our home.”</p>
<p>About that, at least, Jack believed the Borg were being honest.</p>
<p>“You still haven’t explained why most of you look so young,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Only about half the Collective are under the age of eighteen, Colonel O’Neill,” One said. “As for why, the spell that transformed our progenitor was cast on Halloween.”</p>
<p>“I don’t get it,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“You progenitor, he dressed as a Borg?”</p>
<p>“Correct, Dr. Jackson, and he assimilated many of young individuals in our city that night.”</p>
<p>“What city is that?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Irrelevant,” One said after aiming an icy look at Jack.</p>
<p>Jack smiled.</p>
<p><i>Interesting</i>.</p>
<p>“I am familiar with the Halloween holiday. It is also celebrated by small children, is it not?” Teal’c asked.</p>
<p>Jack’s smile disappeared. “Did you guys assimilate kids?” he asked stonily.</p>
<p>“The Collective was different then,” One said. “You are familiar with how the Borg operated on Star Trek?”</p>
<p>Jack nodded.</p>
<p>“The spell turned our progenitor into that version of the Borg. The worst version.”</p>
<p>Jack’s thoughts reeled. If that version of the Borg existed here, on Earth, he contemplated the devastation they would have rained down. According to Daniel’s visit to that alternate reality, Earth would mount some kind of defense against a Goa’uld invasion. Their defenses wouldn’t last long, not even a week, but before being wiped out they’d at least be able to take some of the snake-heads down with them. But against the Borg, Earth stood no chance. Humanity would be extinct in less than a day.</p>
<p>“How close was it?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Close.”</p>
<p>“What stopped you?”</p>
<p>“My friends,” Xander said, and it was hard to miss the note of pride in his voice.</p>
<p>“After the spell was broken many assimilated individuals returned to complete normalcy,” One went on to say.</p>
<p>“But not all of you?”</p>
<p>“Correct. We were freed from the ruthless drives and directives of the original Borg, but we had been assimilated for too long to ever go back to being human.”</p>
<p>“The kids?”</p>
<p>“Only eight children remain Borg.”</p>
<p>“And what are you all doing about that?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>Three stepped forward until she stood right in front of Jack. It was the first time either of the Borg moved since Jack and Daniel arrived on the bridge. Carter and Teal’c raised their weapons, but Jack motioned for them to lower them.</p>
<p>“There are many questions we will provide answers to if you ask, Colonel O’Neill, and many we will not. But any further inquiries about those children will never be answered.”</p>
<p>Three leveled a grim, icy expression at Jack before she shook her head, and said:</p>
<p>“Do not ask about them again.”</p>
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